NEW JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Route 42 near the Atlantic City Expressway is getting an overhaul about a year sooner than previously expected.
Construction on the nearly $80 million project was originally slated for 2025 but will now start in mid-April, according to Hardev Dave with the New Jersey Department of Transportation.
Roads and shoulders will be widened and crosswalks will be corrected.
Dave says there will also be some repaving, flood mitigation systems and synchronized traffic signals with CCTV cameras, which will be monitored by a team in a command center to help improve traffic flow on Route 42 from the Atlantic City Expressway to Kennedy Avenue.
Officials say those cameras will be strictly for information gathering, not for speed or red light violations, as they won’t be reading license plates. A team will be able to see where backups are building, then manipulate the lights to keep people moving.
“It will be a tremendous impact to the motoring public in a positive way,” he said.
Dave says the timeline was advanced because officials at NJDOT wanted to prioritize this project. It’ll take about three years to complete once the work gets started.