CHERRY HILL — One of the biggest improvement projects to Route 70 in decades is going to continue for at least three more years, according to the best estimates of the state Department of Transportation.
And pending changes will affect a heavily traveled section of the highway on the Cherry Hill’s west side, the department announced Wednesday, Jan. 3.
Workers will close 10 side streets connecting to the westbound highway from Maine Avenue to Mercer Street.
Those streets also include Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Warren, and Chambers avenues.
The shutdowns and detours will start at 11 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5, and will continue until summer 2024. it said.
In addition, traffic on the westbound highway will be shifted to the left – away from curbside businesses – onto a temporary roadway in the median.
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That change, to take effect by 6 a.m. Saturday, will create a work zone on the right lane and shoulder, allowing installation of a water main and reconstruction of the road.
It also is expected to continue until summer.
“Some of the road conditions were in desperate need of upgrading,” Mayor Dave Fleisher said.” So, that will certainly be a positive. In addition to some of the infrastructure below that you don’t typically see, such as drainage.”
Fleisher, however, said a meeting is being arranged with DOT officials to talk about better interaction with the small businesses and residential areas on or near Route 70, saying the township has “been dissatisfied with the communications that we’ve had with DOT.
“Particularly as it relates to impacts to our small businesses on Route 70 and the adjoining neighborhoods. For example, sometime business owners wake up and their entrances have been blocked or rerouted with little or no notice. And it creates, you know, a safety hazard and a blatant hardship on our small businesses.”
Work already completed on an 8.8-mile stretch is making some differences, not everywhere without complaint though.
The $153 million project is meant to improve safety and infrastructure from Evesham, through Cherry Hill, and into Pennsauken.
More: Massive reconstruction on Route 70 now underway
What’s happening to Route 70?
“Route 70 has needed a lot of help for many, many years,” Pennsauken Administrator Tim Killion said recently. “So, it’s actually nice that they’re doing that almost nine-mile stretch that includes about half a mile into Pennsauken.”
New installations and replacements include natural gas and water mains, traffic signals at 27 intersections, and four traffic alert signs. Other upgrades address improved drainage, sidewalks, and resurfacing between Route 38 in Cherry Hill and Cooper Avenue in Evesham.
Killion said the township has noted significant work on curbs, sidewalks and signals to date.
“But they’ve really done a lot of work with the islands throughout. Right now, it looks like they’ve removed practically all of them. It looks like they’re creating different turning lanes or more turn lanes going across.”
In addition, DOT says, the North Maple Avenue loop ramps and the Route 70/Route 73 interchange ramps will be repaved.
How long has the Route 70 project been going on?
The project goes back to 2011, when a stretch from milepost 0 to milepost 7.7 was identified as needing pavement repair. A concept development study started the same year.
The eastern limit of the project area was stretched to Cooper Road, or milepost 8.8, in 2019. A contract was awarded in June 2021 to Richard E. Pierson Construction Company Inc. of Pilesgrove. It put in the lowest of five bids.
At contract award time, a May 2026 completion date was anticipated. Work now is expected to be done in early 2027, according to the Transportation Department.
A DOT spokeswoman said replacement of the Pennsauken Creek culvert had its first stage in 2023. It will continue along with the start of replacing the Cropwell’s Brook culvert.
Spokeswoman Elizabeth Galamba said an old culvert — “not originally shown on the plans” — was discovered under Route 70 near the Cuthbert Boulevard overpass.
“It was necessary to remove a portion of the inactive culvert, in order to install the steel gas main under the adjacent live culvert,” she said. “In addition, new work was added to replace corrugated metal pipe underneath the roadway that was in poor condition and upgrade highway lighting.”
Some work also slowed due to supply chain issues, in particular for PSE&G gas main work.
Staff writer Jim Walsh contributed to this report.
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
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