More than two dozen New Jersey towns are getting federal grant money for transportation projects.

According to Michael Darcy, the executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside program, established by Congress in 2012, provides funding for “bikeways, pedestrian improvements, fixing congestion in streets.”

He said the program, which falls under the Fixing America Surface Transportation Act, also helps improve community involvement activities, certain infrastructure projects, environmental mitigation and safe routes to school projects in the Garden State.

“That’s a wonderful thing because New Jersey is often at the bottom of the list when it comes to getting some federal funding," he said.

He said there’s an increased effort in towns across the Garden State to ramp up pedestrian safety.

“In order to do that you need to do things like fix crosswalks so that they are safer, fix the traffic control devices, do what’s called traffic calming or slowing traffic down.”

He said in more rural and undeveloped areas of the state, there may not be any sidewalks at all, which is dangerous.

 

A total of 26 towns in 12 counties are sharing more than $17 million in federal Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside grants this year.

  • Burlington County— Florence: $562,000
  • Burlington County — Palmyra: $343,000
  • Camden County — Audubon, Haddon Heights: $1,220,000
  • Camden County — Camden: $680,000
  • Camden County — Gibbsboro: 408,000
  • Camden County — Gloucester Township: $540,000
  • Bergen County — Emerson: $780,000
  • Bergen County — Hillsdale: $1,300,000
  • Bergen County — Leonia: $920,000
  • Essex County — Bloomfield: $428,000
  • Hudson County — Jersey City: $1,000,000
  • Hudson County — Weehawken: $1,200,000
  • Hunterdon County — Frenchtown: $1,000,000
  • Middlesex County — Carteret: $500,000
  • Middlesex County — Metuchen: $307,000
  • Middlesex County — Old Bridge, Route 516 Pedestrian Safety Sidewalk Improvement Project: $350,000
  • Monmouth County — Freehold Borough, Hazlet, Keansburg, Keyport, Marlboro, Union Beach, Henry Hudson Trail Extension and Pedestrian Safety Improvements, Monmouth County Park System: $1,200,000
  • Monmouth County — Marlboro Route 79 Sidewalk Extension: $875,000
  • Monmouth County — Red Bank, Shrewsbury Avenue Streetscape: $1,000,000
  • Passaic County — $1,500,000
  • Somerset County — Manville Restoration of Lost Valley: $800,000
  • Warren County — Greenwich Township, Lopatcong, Morris Canal Museum Bridge / Vehicle Access Roadway over Lopatcong Creek & Riparian Zone Mitigation: $830,000

You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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