Cranbury officials will look to the state to help pay to reconstruct a 1-mile-stretch of Brickyard Road, a job estimated to cost $1 million.
The township next month intends to apply for a grant with the state Department of Transportation, which in the past has provided the town about $300,000 for road projects, officials said this week. But the biggest piece of funding will come from the private sector.
Municipal officials said Viridian, the company that acquired a nearly 400-acre property in Cranbury in 2006 for a warehouse development, set aside $425,000 in an escrow fund to repair Brickyard Road and $300,000 for other road repairs in town, money Cranbury can pool with the state grant.
“We have to fix roads with the money we get from the state,” Committeeman Daniel P. Mulligan III said during the Township Committee meeting on Sept. 24, when officials discussed the issue.
One factor that could throw off the estimate is rising materials costs. In an interview after the meeting, Mayor Glenn R. Johnson said Township Engineer Thomas Decker has said the cost of asphalt is going up.
“By the time we get the grant and actually bid the thing, it could be a little bit north of there,” Johnson said of the $1 million pricetag. “But this is as close as he can get right now.”
Officials have said Cranbury could provide money from municipal coffers to help cover any small difference between the combined state grant and Viridian funds and the project cost.
In particular, the township will look to reconstruct Brickyard Road from the traffic circle at Route 130 to Hightstown-Cranbury Station Road. Officials have said that section of road is in bad condition, what Committeeman Jay Taylor this week called the “D-Day of roads” in Cranbury.
