Drivers and residents can hear about plans to build a complete interchange at Exit 125 on the Garden State Parkway in Sayreville on Wednesday.
New Jersey Turnpike authority officials are planning to fill in missing pieces of Exit 125 on the Garden State Parkway, which drivers and residents can learn about Wednesday evening.
Drivers and residents can hear details of the $80 million project and give their opinion to engineers at a hearing and information forum to be held Wednesday at the Sayreville Municipal Building 167 Main Street. It consists of a Public Information Center held from 4 to 6 p.m., and a public hearing and presentation from 6 to 8 p.m.
Most Parkway drivers probably know Exit 125 as the last exit before the Driscoll bridge carries the highway's northbound lanes over the Raritan River. There is no southbound Exit 125, but an entrance ramp from Chevalier Avenue to the Parkway south is located before the Raritan tolls.
The project is designed to take traffic off local roads and other highways, which now uses Exit 124 and local streets to navigate around the incomplete Exit 125, Turnpike Authority officials said.
The estimated construction cost is $80 million and a contract is expected to be awarded next month, said Thomas Feeney, a turnpike authority spokesman. The project has a 2018 completion date, he said.
The proposed project would change that, making Exit 125 a full interchange by adding an exit ramp from the Parkway south and an entrance ramp to the northbound parkway. Bridges that carry the Parkway over Chevalier Avenue would be replaced and that street would be widened to two eastbound lanes and three westbound lanes.
Before enterprising motorists think they'll be able to beat paying the toll, plans call for construction of a tollbooth to the southbound parkway.
The existing exit ramp from the southbound Parkway would be relocated and allow construction of a bypass road that would take traffic directly to the Main Street extension, according to the plans.
Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
