Starting this morning Monday March 17th, a southbound portion of Cross Keys Road in the Albion section of Pine Hill/Berlin is closed as South Jersey Gas works on replacing aging natural gas mains and services with a new durable plastic gas line.
The actual gas line work is a small section in the area of the railroad tracks in Albion.
Unfortunately this small interruption makes for a long detour for southbound commuters in this area due to existing developments in the area such as the golf course. The detour will send cars on a 5 extra mile drive through Clementon and Pine Hill.
For those traveling South on Cross Keys Road through Albion, the detour presented by the police departments of Pine Hill and Gloucester Township is somewhat significant.
Cars will need to turn right on New Freedom Road, travel down to Berlin Road and through Clementon… on to Blackwood-Clementon and then turn left up Branch Road to finally reconnect with Cross Keys again at Kearsley.
There is some discrepancy right now regarding how long this detour will last.
A Camden County press release put out late Friday shows this as just a five-day closure from March 17th through Friday March 21st.
That being said both notices from Gloucester Township and Pine Hill police departments state this is a multiple week closure.
Cross Keys Road Widening – Contract 4?
Local commuters and readers clearly realize that Cross Keys Road has been undergoing a multiple year rebuild project which is widening the roadway to support two-lanes in each direction, improving drainage, and also improving utility connections through the roadway.
This current Albion closure is in the area of what is to be the final “Contract 4” widening of the roadway (down to the White Horse Pike) and in the Police Department commentary it is stated this is part of that effort.
That being said, Camden County has not clearly stated this is the start of Contract 4 of the Cross Keys Road widening project, although some other preliminary utility work has previously been completed.
There are no press releases from the County about Contract 4 starting, and the Capital Improvement status update page that the County maintains on their website does not include any sections yet for Contract 4, nor is it even listed in their upcoming 2025 projects (which does list other efforts).
I have emails in with the County to get clarification.
For this gas line effort, South Jersey Gas has put together a short PDF page which was provided to me by Camden County. (Link)
The fact sheet states that a temporary repair will be made until final restoration occurs typically within 60 to 90 days.
