By Christina Paciolla – cpaciolla@sjnewsco.com
HARRISON TWP. At the brand new intersection of Route 322 and Lambs Road in Mullica Hill, a motorist stopped at the red light, hung out his window and applauded.
His actions were directed at county officials who were standing by the side of the road admiring the five-lane roadway – a new headache-free intersection once known as one of the worst roads for traffic in the county.
“Traffic here would be backed up every day,” said Freeholder Director Stephen M. Sweeney. “We said we were going to fix a major traffic problem and we did.”
The improvements to Route 322 consisted of widening it to a five-lane road from the traffic lights at Lambs Road to just west of the traffic light at Barnsboro Road.
There, Route 322 now has two lanes in each direction Ð going east and west Ð and a center turning lane. The two traffic lights have left turn arrows on the county route approaches.
Sweeney joined Freeholder Deputy Director Robert M. Damminger and Harrison Township Committeemen Dennis Clowney and Don Heim at the new intersection. Damminger said it took two years total to complete the intersection.
“It’s a small price to pay to ensure safety,” Damminger said.
For 40 years, motorists had been used to sitting on traffic on Route 322 between Lambs and Barnsboro roads for several minutes Ð never being able to avoid both red lights.
“This is a great, great image for people traveling here,” Sweeney said.
The freeholders said that now that people see the improvements made to that particular intersection, there will be high hopes for the rest of the improvements to Route 322 into downtown Mullica Hill.
“The county took the bull by the horns,” Clowney said. “The flow is so much nicer here.”
Heim said that over the weekend, as he was driving back from the shore, it was the first time in years he had taken that road home to Harrison Township.
“This is a really good first step for us,” Heim said.
The widening and traffic signal improvements marked the completion of the Route 322 Richwood Phase II construction and is part of the larger Route 322 project.
This time last year, Phase 1 was completed. That included installing a jughandle road between Route 322 and Lambs Road and installing a connector road between Harrisonville Road and Richwood Road.
Last month, ground broke on the first phase of a new bypass, which will reconnect to the existing alignment of Route 322 at a new signalized intersection at Clems Run Road.
A small section of that new road will utilize a section of Walters Road, which is being realigned to allow for better traffic flow.
Harrison Township Mayor Lou Manzo said Tuesday evening that he’s especially happy the road was completed before the busy Fourth of July weekend. He gave kudos to County Engineer Vince Voltaggio, who ran into some weather problems the last few months.
“We coordinated with him and he got it done in time,” Manzo said. “We’re pleased and excited that this portion is actually done. This is just huge.”
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