In anticipation of increased truck traffic generated by a recently approved warehouse, Lawrence Township has applied for a state grant to pay for repaving a half-mile-long stretch of Princess Road.
The township seeks $211,000 from the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Local Freight Impact Fund to pay for repaving Princess Road, between its intersection with Princeton Pike and the planned 340,400-square-foot warehouse.
The Local Freight Impact Fund provides grants for several purposes, including bridge preservation, the construction of new roads to alleviate truck congestion, adding lanes or widening a road, and resurfacing an existing road.
Municipal Engineer James Parvesse and Assistant Municipal Engineer Brenda Kraemer are always seeking out grants, Municipal Manager Kevin Nerwinski said.
“This is just forward thinking,” Nerwinski said of the grant application.
Princess Road was completely reconstructed in 1996, but it has reached the end of its useful life, according to the grant application. If the grant is approved, the project will include removing the top layer of asphalt and putting down a new layer of asphalt.
Based on a traffic count conducted by the Lawrence Township Police Department in November of 2018, nearly 3,000 cars and trucks use Princess Road daily.
About 12 percent of the 3,000 vehicles are large trucks, defined as those weighing more than 10,000 pounds. The number of large trucks will increase, once the new warehouse at 10 Princess Road is constructed.
The application stated that there are several businesses on Princess Road. Those businesses Kramer Beverage Co., which has a 110,000-square-foot distribution warehouse; Data Color International, which has a 32,000-square-foot warehouse and storage area; and a building at 9-23 Princess Road that has a 40,500-square-foot warehouse.
The Lawrence Township Planning Board approved an application for a 340,400-square-foot warehouse at 10 Princess Road in November of 2018. The warehouse includes 103 loading docks and 64 trailer parking spaces. It is not known at this time who will occupy the warehouse.
The amount of warehouse square footage on Princess Road will total nearly 523,000 square feet, once the new warehouse is built, according to the Lawrence Township Tax Assessor’s Office.
Although Princess Road runs between Princeton Pike and Franklin Corner Road, the new warehouse – as well as the existing businesses – use Princess Road to connect to Princeton Pike.
The intersection of Princess Road and Princeton Pike is a short distance from the ramp to I-295. The intersection is also close to U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 206 and Mercer County Route 546.
