Construction worker Robert Simone, of Monroe Township, installs a dewatering system on Jan. 4 at the Somers Point Circle.

From Press of AC staff reports | Posted: Friday, January 15, 2010

The traffic detours on MacArthur Boulevard should be removed and the closed portion of the Somers Point circle should be reopened sometime this morning, said Tim Greeley, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, with Route 52 expected to be returned to the normal configuration.

Greeley added the DOT does not have any other major traffic pattern closings or changes planned in the near future — possibly not until September, he said.

The two-week closing, which began Jan. 4, was part of the six-year, $400 million effort to build an elevated Route 52 causeway connecting Somers Point and Ocean City. That project is expected to be completed in December 2012.

Workers improved drainage and added support to the ground in advance of the circle eventually being replaced with a four-way intersection with signals.

Among the DOT’s plans, according to details announced in 2008:

_MacArthur Boulevard would be widened east of Route 9 to include a center turning-lane, and would be expanded to four lanes as it aproaches the new intersection. A traffic light would be added at MacArthur and a reconfigured Braddock Drive.

_The site of the former Gulf station would become parking for a new boat ramp north of the bridge. Running parallel to the south side of the bridge would be a fishing pier.

_The site of the Pearl Restaurant — the owners of which handed over their keys to the property to the DOT on Monday — will be the location of a parking lot for the Somers Mansion.

_The project would not extend past Route 9 to West Laurel Drive — so traffic coming to and from the Garden State Parkway still would be funneled down the two-lane street. West Laurel Drive is a local road and the Route 52 project is state-run and federally funded.