During the first week of November, the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Municipal Aid Program selected the Borough of Haddonfield to receive funding for its impending roadway improvements along Hickory Lane.
The borough was awarded $230,000 for planned upgrades on Hickory between Chews Landing and Warwick roads. The application had been completed and submitted to the NJDOT in late June, and notification of the funds was received right around the time the state notified other municipalities.
Per Doug Johnson, from official borough engineers Remington & Vernick, the state’s department of transportation has various criteria they rate the applications on, however their office is not privy to the exact rating system.
“The amount of Haddonfield received is similar to the amounts other Camden County municipalities received, excluding those municipalities that receive Urban Aid,” Johnson added.
The grant the borough received from NJDOT is part of $161.25 million distributed to 541 municipalities throughout the state. The aid program is very competitive, with a total of 625 applications requesting more than $363 million in aid for various roadway construction projects.
Although the final scope of the reconstruction has not been decided on as of yet, Johnson noted it may include but would not be limited to milling/overlay and road reconstruction, a review of existing stormwater systems and improvements as needed; select curb replacement; select sidewalk driveway apron replacement; curb installation which is compliant to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Although Hickory Lane was not one of the areas directly impacted by the severe storms and flooding in 2019 and 2020, it is still an integral part of the borough’s effort to remediate stormwater systems and flow throughout town.
“As with other road improvements in the borough, an evaluation of the existing storm system is done to determine if improvements are needed,” Johnson continued. “This could range from replacing deteriorated/broken pipe increasing the number of inlets on a roadway to capture the storm runoff into the system.”
While Johnson could not offer any comparisons between what Haddonfield submitted among other municipalities within their applications, he stated that, in general, the NJDOT municipal aid grant is applied to road resurfacing projects.
NJDOT provides statewide assistance for local governments for improvements to and preservation of the regional transportation network. The state gas tax supports the funds for this program from the Transportation Trust Fund.
Per Borough Administrator Sharon McCullough, the Hickory Lane Project will go out to bid in early spring 2022.
