TOMS RIVER, NJ – Work is continuing along the Route 9 corridor between Toms River and Lakewood to make it easier for residents to travel between the two towns. This week, state Department of Transportation workers began working on the intersection of Church Road and Cox Cro Road in an effort to ease congestion at one of the chokepoints connecting the two towns.
The road will be closed from 9 pm to 5 am Monday through Friday for the next few months.
The project aims to allow traffic to flow more smoothly and efficiently between the two towns.
At this time, only intersections will be widened, but the main stretch of Route 9 in the area will remain a two-lane road.
The state is also installing 1.6 miles of new sidewalks and repairing and rebuilding 5.9 miles of existing sidewalks along the route. Shoulders are also expected to be widened for bicycles and pedestrian traffic.
“Last year I sent a letter to the New Jersey Department of Transportation, asking that some of the $3.9 billion in federal infrastructure money go to widening Route 9 in Toms River and Lakewood,” Toms River Mayor Mo Hill, a champion of the project said in a Asbury Park Press article in September.
Hill said the 95,000 Toms River residents and 135,000 Lakewood residents are sharing the same two lane highway that was built 70 years ago and has for the most part remain untouched by the state during that time.