UPDATE Tuesday, Dec. 10: Mercer County was unable to complete the painting of the road lines because of the heavy rains on Monday. A spokesperson says that they hope to be able to complete the striping and turn on the new traffic signal today.
Hopewell Valley commuters will be pleased to learn that Mercer County plans to reopen Washington Crossing-Pennington Road to traffic on Monday, Dec. 9, circumstances permitting.
The road, also known as County Route 546, was closed on Aug. 20 for a total replacement of the bridge over Woolsey Brook, which had been deemed structurally deficient. The county initially projected that the project would take 93 days to complete, which would have put the reopening in mid-November.
A county spokesperson said unforeseen conflicts with existing underground utilities are the reason the project took longer to complete than expected.
As reported earlier, the new bridge will consist of two 12-foot travel lanes, one 6- foot and one 8-foot shoulder to accommodate future bicycle lanes. A 5-foot sidewalk will be provided on the south side. An upgraded traffic signal is replacing the existing temporary signal.
The county awarded the contract for the project to Midlantic Construction LLC of Barnegat on June 27. The company bid more than $1.76 million.
