MEDFORD - Construction of the first major portion of the township's new bicycle-path network is expected to get under way by the middle of this month.
Last month, the council approved a contract for $579,000 with Giberson Plumbing and Excavating in Shamong to build the bike lane along Dixontown Road.
Township engineer Chris Noll said last week that the 4-foot-wide path, which will run on the southeast side of the road, should be completed by Aug. 31.
During construction, the road will be closed to all but local traffic from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The bike path will extend the entire length of Dixontown Road, from Skeet Road to Tabernacle-Medford Lakes Road. The construction phase beginning this month will cover a segment from Skeet Road to the Medford Lakes border.
Noll said Medford Lakes is applying for a $275,000 state Department of Transportation grant to finance the borough's portion of the path.
Medford officials have applied for an additional $300,000 from the state for the final section that will run from the Medford Lakes border to Tabernacle-Medford Lakes Road.
"This I would say is the largest (portion) of the project we have in the length of it and the cost of it," he said.
The total cost for the Dixontown Road bike path is expected to be around $1 million. Officials hope to use DOT grants and developer contributions to pay for it.
Medford already has received a $460,000 DOT grant.
The planning firm Urbitran Associates Inc. of Edison, Middlesex County, is designing the township's entire bicycle-path network based on suggestions from the DOT and a township bicycle committee made up of officials and residents.
Urbitran is currently examining five "problem" intersections to determine a plan that would allow bicyclists to travel through those intersections safely, said Leigh Ann Von Hagen, the coordinator of Urbitran's bicycle and pedestrian group.
The intersections are Stokes Road, Mill Street and Chapel Avenue; Stokes and Jackson roads; Taunton and Tuckerton roads; Skeet, Dixontown and Stokes roads; and Taunton, Hartford and Himmelein roads.
When the entire network is completed in five years, the result will be a system linking Freedom Park, the village of Medford, Hartford Crossing, Bob Meyer Park, the Ironstone Village and Village of Taunton Forge shopping centers, Medford Lakes, Camp Ockanickon, Kirby's Mill and the Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge.
Von Hagen said Urbitran is finishing a report on the project that includes resident input from a public meeting in April. The final plan will be passed on to the DOT and township for review this month.
July 01, 2002