The intersection upgrade project at Fries Mill Road and Route 322 (Glassboro Road) in Monroe Twp has been halted for 18 months, and yesterday Monroe Township Mayor Wolfe posted an update.
In that update Mayor Wolfe provides the project’s status, covers where the projects restart efforts are at now, shares new communication channels he has with the County, and states a portion of the project may see activity again very soon.
Last week I also received a written response (to my inquiry) from Gloucester County Commissioner Matthew Weng on the status of the project. The comments of Weng and Wolfe are in line with each other… although Mayor Wolfe’s commentary adds additional details.
I will continue to push both the County and State to get this project back on track. This has been a very frustrating process but I think we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Mayor Greg Wolfe, Monroe Township (Gloucester County, NJ). April 2, 2025
Based on comments and questions from 42Freeway readers this is clearly one of the top “What’s going on with…” projects in the South Jersey region.
An added frustration for me personally is that I want to provide answers to the public, but I can only pass on what the government provides to me… and at times that can be tough when a project such as this has multiple entities involved.
In my recent research for updates I contacted Mayor Wolfe, NJDOT, Gloucester County Engineers office and Commissioner, as well as a face-to-face conversation with State Senator Moriarty who as an Assembly member was part of the early efforts to start the project.
Fries Mill Road & Rt 322 – Primer
As a background, Monroe Township and the Route 322 corridor have become rapidly growing areas, seeing increased growth in population and commercial development.
This growth has led to significant vehicle traffic on local roadways, which can lead to bottlenecks at narrow intersections designed decades ago without dedicated turn lanes.
Gloucester County in wanting to keep up with growing traffic demands now and into the future, correctly identified the intersection of Route 322 (Glassboro Road) and Fries Mill Road as problematic. With just one lane entering the intersection from each direction, the moment someone wants to make a left-hand turn for example, all traffic basically stops from that direction… causing significant traffic backups.
From an “on-the-ground” construction perspective this is a Gloucester County managed project, but it operates under the guidance of the State of New Jersey particularly the Department of Transportation, as well as environmental concerns governed by the Department of Environmental Protection.
Back in November 2022, 42Freeway wrote about the start of the project which would add multiple lanes at the intersection to support dedicated turn lanes and improve traffic flow. Additionally, today’s modern road construction guidelines require much more significant water management aspects, which this project was accounting for via multiple water basins.
During the initial 10 months of construction, the project did see significant progress related to the clearing of wider areas of the intersection ahead of the roadway expansion, as well as multiple water retention basins developed to capture any roadway water runoff.
In that timeframe there were some short stoppages of the construction, related to the coordination of utility work.
But clearly it was full steam ahead through most of 2023 for the project, with an expectation it would be completed in 2024 (very originally it was projected for completion in the Summer of 2023)
Then in early October of 2024, the project was forced to a hard stop. It was later reported by the Courier-Post (via Mayor Wolfe) that the reason for the stoppage was concerns from the Department of Environmental Protection, related to the water management systems which they seemingly the DEP felt needed additional review.
18 months later no additional construction activity has taken place, and residents (and area commuters) have a growing frustration regarding the project, as daily they sit at the intersection surrounded by the partially started project.
Factor in that to the public it seems the updates are very infrequent… frustration has grown within the public.
Honestly, not that I’ve been doing this for a lifetime but as I approach my 11th year of writing 42Freeway I don’t think I’ve ever seen a situation where a project like this was approved by multiple levels of Government, started with significant progress, and then halted for 18 months with the public mostly left wondering.
In my prior update (November 2024), again it was Mayor Wolfe who shared the details… which portions of it supplied by NJDOT Commissioner Francis O’Connor, who provided a chronological break down of the progress as of last October.
Interestingly the October 3rd entry offers that the Commissioner reiterated the importance of the project and the need to resume construction before the end of the calendar year (2024).
It is now six months later in April of the following year, and the public is looking for answers.
Fries Mill Road & Rt 322 – Status
As mentioned, over the last few weeks I have been contacting multiple levels of the local Government in search of an update on the project… which is more complicated than it would seem as multiple entities are involved and finding that one spokesperson to represent all levels of the project can be challenging.
Last week I received the following update from Gloucester County Commissioner Matthew Weng, via County Engineer Barry Beckett:
The county took over this project and made significant progress. However, work was halted at the state’s request. The state then asked the County to resubmit the project plans for review, which has been done. We are currently awaiting final approval of those plans from NJDOT. We then must submit to NJDEP for their approval as well. Once the state gives all approvals, our crews will promptly return to complete the work.
Gloucester County Commissioner Matthew Weng, Status of Intersection Improvements Fries Mill & Rt 322. March 26, 2025
The need for revised plans is based on the concerns of the NJDEP regarding the water management at the intersection. After a variety of discussions and agreements, the State provided Gloucester County a list of requested changes… to which the County needed to adjust the plans and resubmit for review.
I was going to “run” with this status last week but was looking for additional details from NJDOT.
But then yesterday in a Facebook town Group a local resident eloquently expressed their frustration with the project and shared some details of the status that they had heard on the project.
While that resident commentary wasn’t wrong.. it was also very vague and didn’t cover recent positives with the project status.
So with that prompt and wanting to add more clarity, Mayor Wolfe replied with his status update.
I was going to re-write the Mayor’s commentary with additional details.. but he does a very good job of covering the specifics without being wordy, so here is his unedited status commentary.
In the end I realize the public wants crisp “when does it start again, and when will it be completed”, and while Mayor Wolfe does provide a positive update with the potential of some efforts restarting soon, I don’t think we are at “crisp” dates just yet.
I again contacted the State and County a few weeks ago and continue to push to get this project back on track. I am now involved in weekly meetings where I obtain updates provided by the County. We have had two meetings, the past two weeks, tomorrow being the third.
The County has revised the plans, submitted them to the NJ DOT, received comments back from the state, the county made those adjustments and have resubmitted for review again to the state. The State DOT has been expediting their recent reviews and my hope is that tomorrow, the County has the approvals to move the project forward to the NJ DEP.
We have commitments from various state political figures, that will push the NJ DEP to fast track their reviews.
The State is also working with the contractor to adjust pricing, since costs have risen, as well as labor, since the delay 18 months ago.
If they move to the next step with NJ DEP, and the finances are worked out with the contractor, the eastern side of the project may be able to begin very soon, while we await NJ DEP approval for the western retention basin.
I will continue to push both the County and State to get this project back on track. This has been a very frustrating process but I think we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Mayor Greg Wolfe, Monroe Township (Gloucester County, NJ). April 2, 2025
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