The South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA) is planning to widen a two lane, 13-mi. section of the Atlantic City Expressway (ACE) by adding a third lane in both directions along the center median.
Currently in its preliminary design phase, the project will ease traffic backups along a route infamous for its bottlenecks, authority officials said.
"Everyone knows it is the right thing to do," U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1st Dist., told NJ.com during a media event held in Winslow Township on Oct. 19. "The back-ups start where the third lane stops."
The $180 million ACE project is slated to have an official groundbreaking in 2024.
The projected third lane is to be constructed in both directions along the 44-mi.-long toll road's final two-lane section, announced Stephen F. Dougherty, the executive director of SJTA.
The road work will stretch northwest from mile marker 31 in Winslow Township to the New Jersey Highway 42 terminus in Gloucester Township in Camden County. The expressway serves six South Jersey counties and links the Garden State Parkway and Philadelphia with Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore.
The current two-lane section of the ACE carries 55,000 vehicles a day and "considerably more" during the summer, especially on weekends, Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and chairperson of the SJTA board told NJ.com.
She added that a safety problem exists on this section of the expressway when a crash or incident occurs. When one involves a tractor-trailer, and brings traffic to a standstill, travelers are often left waiting for hours.
"[Building an extra lane will] reduce traffic, relieve congestion, and provide a coastal evacuation route," Gutierrez-Scaccetti said. "Adding a third lane each way ensures the road meets the needs."
Planners Conscious of Environmental Concerns
"We are committed to a low impact project," Dougherty said of the plan to build along the center median and avoid wetlands alongside the two-lane section of the highway south of N.J. 42.
The SJTA hopes the highway's design will answer environmental objections to the project that were raised in May 2020 when a $500 million capital plan that included the widening project was approved. It is funded by a 37 percent toll increase that took effect in September 2020.
Still, ACE's designers faced a challenge in minimizing the environmental impact of the extra lane of traffic, said Stephen Mazur, SJTA's chief engineer.
"We knew before we started [that there are] wetlands on either side of the highway and there are wildlife and endangered species habitats," he commented to NJ.com, but added he is confident that having both new lanes on the median will minimize tree clearing and the effects on nearby wetlands.
Only two bridges on the expressway will need to be replaced to provide enough clearance for the added lanes, Mazur said.
SJTA is working with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and local officials on obtaining permits and addressing any public concerns, he said. A hearing about the project and open to the public will be held, according to Mazur, although a date has not yet been announced.
Once the first shovels hit dirt on the ACE lane expansion, he said construction will last roughly two years.
"It's a pretty aggressive schedule," Mazur explained.
The Atlantic City Expressway was first opened in 1964, before being widened from N.J. 73 east to Atlantic City in the 1980s. Two more road expansions followed: One going west from the famed beach community, and, later, a third from the Garden State Parkway to N.J. 73.
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