April 2020

No visible work on the direct connect project last week, but I do have some more pictures of the missing moves project.

Here are some pictures of the staging area that has been setup along 295 South.






There is a large pile of steel in the staging. One of the pieces if labeled Wall #9, #11 55’. This may be for retaining wall 11 which is shown in the plans below.

April 2020

I looks like some work has been going on the past week. The retaining wall by the cemetery has started to wrap around the support columns. The will eventually form the end of the of the new 295 mainline where it transitions into an overpass over 42.

More land clearing has been done for the missing moves project. Here you can see some clearing along 295 North, just above Almonesson Rd.

Some more land clearing along 295 North between Almonesson Rd. and Creek Rd.

Here is another look at some of the clearing along 295 South just above Creek Rd. It’s hard to see in this picture but the a staging area has been setup in this area.

April 2020

There continues to be little visible work on the direct connect project, but work has continued on Missing Moves.

Here is a pictures of the Jersey barriers installed along 295 north starting below creek road.

Here are some more pictures of the land clearing along the south bound side.

The clearing on the south bound side now extends all the way down to Delsea Drive. 295 will be widened to four lanes from where the new ramp ends all the way down to the Delsea drive exit.

Missing Moves Project

The 295 direct connect project has still got a few years to go, but another major project is about to start up on 295, the Missing Moves project. The goal of this project is to add ramps from 42 North to 295 South, and 295 North to 42 South. Below is a drawing of the project. The 295 end of the ramps will be right around the Creek Road overpass which will be rebuilt as part of the project. The other end of the ramps will be just south of the Bellmawr 42 exit. As part of the project the exit from 42 onto Leaf Road in Bellmawr will be moved a little further south. Finally, the ramp from 55 North to 295 North will become 2 lanes. You can see a video of the finished configuration here: http://www.rdvsystems.com/portfolio/i295-missing-moves-nj/

The first visible work has started with some land clearing along 295 South just north of Creek Road. Jersey barriers have also been installed along the shoulders on both the North and South bound sides of 295.

February 2020

Work on the project is starting to pick back up, mainly around the foundations for what will become the overpass supports. Here are some pictures of the area along 42 North just after the Browning Road overpass. First is the section of the plans for this area, I have circles the location of three foundations that are being build.

In this picture you can see the yellow forms for  the foundation that was poured a while back. This is the foundation circled in blue on the plans.

A pit has been dug between the existing foundation and the highway, this will be for the foundation circled in red on the plans.

Another pit has been dug below where the temporary Browning Road overpass will go. This is for the foundation circled in yellow.

Here is a look at the area from 42.

Works is also going on at two other locations were there will eventually need to be bridge supports. There are ground heaters setup at these locations probably to facilitate concrete work.

February 2020

42Freeway.com has posted a good article looking at the current progress of the direct connect project along with some aerial video of the current state. The article also provides some information on what has delayed the project, now scheduled to be completed in 2024, and why it seems to have been going so slow recently. 42Freeway is a great blog for getting updates on various construction projects in the South Jersey area.

https://www.42freeway.com/direct-connect-295-76-42-project-update-feb-2020-aerial-photos-and-video/

January 2020

Just like the past few months, not a lot of visible progress this month. There was some paving work on the southern section of the mainline. There also has been work going on just below the cemetery near the Browning Road overpass, although I have not been able to figure out exactly what they have been doing.

In this post I thought I would take a look at some of the recent aerial photos from Bing Maps. These appear to be from the fall of 2019.

In this picture you can clearly see the northern portion of the new mainline, this will ultimately connect the northern and southern portions for 295.

In this picture the blue lines show where the rest of the new mainline overpass will go. The red lines show the ramp from 42 north to 295 north a small portion of which has already been built. The yellow shows where the new ramp from 76 East to 295 South will be.

The yellow lines show where the rest of the 76 West to 295 South ramp will be. It will start on the ramp from 76 East to 295 North, cross over where the end of the Al-Jo curve is now, run along 42 South under Browning Road and then come up and join the mainline overpass. The blue shows where the ramp from 295 South to 76 East/42 South will go. This will start on the ramp from 295 South to 76 West cross under the 76 East to 295 North ramp, cross under 76 and come up on the other side and join the road southbound. Tunneling this ramp under 76 is going to be an interesting part of this project.

When everything is done, the current ramp from 42 North to 295 North, and the Al-Jo curve will be removed.

The current ramp that connects the southern portion of 295 to 76 will also be removed. Traffic from 76 East to 295 South will use the new ramp as shown above, and all traffic from 295 North to 76 West will use the ramp that is currently shared by the 295 North and 76 West local traffic.