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Council presses for coordinated action as Clarksville Road bridge repair lags
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Summary
The Township Council of West Windsor heard resident and council concerns about the Clarksville Road (Bridal Road) bridge closure and urged coordination among NJDOT, Amtrak and township officials; a resident with rail-program experience offered to help convene stakeholders.
The Township Council of West Windsor on April 30 received updates and public comment on the closed Clarksville Road (Bridal Road) bridge and ongoing efforts to move repair planning forward.
Council member Mayer said the township is working with the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance on traffic-calming and lane-striping on nearby local streets and has been pursuing bridge repairs with state transportation officials. “They are looking at the data that they collected when they did the bridge inspection,” Mayer said, adding that NJDOT must complete an assessment before engineers will present options.
The mayor noted that once NJDOT completes its assessment, Amtrak must also perform a separate review and approve any work that affects the rail corridor underneath. Mayer confirmed that Amtrak review and separate permitting are required.
During the second public comment period, Vinay Madholkar, who identified himself as a West Windsor resident with decades of experience managing large rail and bridge projects for Amtrak, MBTA and other agencies, urged a multi-stakeholder task force to keep the repair from stalling. “What you really have to do as a user of that overhead road bridge is pull all the key players together,” Madholkar said, offering contacts at NJ Transit and federal agencies and asking township officials to meet with him to coordinate efforts.
Council members and the mayor thanked Madholkar and said staff would follow up to arrange a meeting. No timeline for repairs was announced during the meeting.
The council did not take action in open session on the bridge; council members said they would continue discussions with state and federal partners and notify the public via the township website of any updates.
