Update: Route 22 Overpass Project

A New Jersey Department of Transportation project to widen and reconfigure the intersections and overpass at Park Avenue, Sunset Place and Bonnie Burn Road in Scotch Plains remains on-track for completion in the fall of 2011, a DOT spokesperson said in a phone interview. The project started Jan. 22.

The next step of the project calls for PSE&G to relocate utility poles that currently line the roads, work that will allow construction crews to widen the thoroughfares. The spokesperson said that he did not know when PSE&G's part of the project would begin.

Until PSE&G workers arrive on-site, contractors are installing sanitary sewer lines and excavating strips of land alongside the roads to create "detention basins," grass-covered pockets of land that collect storm-water runoff and feed it back into the sewer system.

Traffic congestion around the construction area remains an issue. During the morning, lunch and evening rush hours, vehicles on Park Avenue lined as far as Park Middle School, more than half a mile from the entrance to Route 22. Motorists are urged to seek alternate routes.

Included above is a photograph of the final layout for Park Avenue, Sunset Place, Bonnie Burn Road and the overpass. Stay tuned to Patch for a high-resolution PDF that will allow zooming and rotating.