I am not in the construction business but I have always been fascinated with it, especially with road construction. I find it particularly interesting when a major change need to be made to a road or intersection while still keeping the road usable. A project of this sort is just beginning in South Jersey and since I go through the construction area a lot I thought it would be interesting to document the process. Note that I am in no way an expert on this topic so these will just be my observations on the project.
So what is the goal of this project? Currently if you are going southbound on Interstate 295 you reach a point where the road splits with the left lanes taking you onto I76 towards Philadelphia. The right lanes go around a very sharp curve (often call the Al-Jo curve), momentarily join with I76/route 42 south, then go back onto I295 South bound. Coming north bound on I295 you run into a similar situation where the road momentarily joins with route 42 where you have to weave in with car coming north on Route 42 before the road continues north on I295.
Approximately 250,000 cars pass through this intersection every day (1) and the current configuration creates a major bottleneck and is the cause of many accidents. This project will correct this by creating a viaduct that will carry I295 over I76/Route 42 so that drivers will be able to go between the north and south sections of 295 without having to slow down or merge into another highway. Exit ramps will be constructed of reconfigured to make the connections between I295 and I76/Route 42.
Work began earlier this year and is scheduled to be complete in 2021.
More Information:
The NJDOT site about the project
Description of the changes that will be made during the project.
List of the current construction activities
(1) http://www.nj.com/camden/index.ssf/2013/03/i-295_route_42_interchange_pro.html
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