The $56.7 million reconstruction of the Route 22/Chimney Rock Road interchange project began this week and will close the section of Chimney Road north of Route 22 in Bridgewater, NJ, chiefly used by trucks entering and exiting the quarry there, according to a report by the Somerset Messenger-Gazette.
Vehicles other than those with business at the quarry are barred from that portion of the road, according to John Kendzulak, the county’s project manager on the job.
Diversionary roads will be constructed in the next few months to handle east- and westbound Route 22 traffic during the duration of the project, which could last 24-30 months, Kendzulak said.
“More than 70,000 vehicles a day travel this portion of Route 22,” Patricia Walsh, director of the project, said. “This section of highway has a crash rate nearly seven times greater than the statewide average for similar roadways.”
With all the quarry-related truck traffic, Kendzulak said, “the road was always beat up.”
