Loads of traffic to bear

Slowly closing in on the former Marlton Circle, motorists could see the forest of bright orange signs: "Shoulder Closed Ahead," "Road Work," "Lane Narrows," and "Give Us a Brake - Slow Down."

Then the long double line of cars came to a stop alongside an electric sign that said, "New Traffic Patterns."

At Routes 70 and 73, near the "Construction Sale" sign outside a mattress store, all that drivers could do was fume in rush-hour traffic aggravated by roadwork.

"I have to leave 15 minutes early to bring my kids to our pediatrician over here," Judy Matchett, 48, of Shamong, said as she watched the gridlock from a Barnes & Noble bookstore. "I avoid this like the plague."

Across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the rest of the nation, motorists are running into unprecedented traffic tie-ups caused by a record number of road and bridge projects, many funded with federal stimulus money.

Delays, accidents - sometimes even road rage - are all too common on I-95 and its Girard Point Bridge, I-295, Route 1, the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Turnpikes, and many other heavily traveled arteries.

And any drivers thinking they can escape them by traveling in off-peak hours usually find that's when the most disruptive work is done. Others taking back roads or using GPS shortcuts discover still more traffic jams.

Scores of construction jobs under way in Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey will continue through the fall, if not longer. Some are not slated for completion until 2012.

In Philadelphia and its four neighboring Pennsylvania counties, $646 million in federal and state money is being spent on roadwork - nearly double what's ordinarily approved for the region, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials said.

Many of the projects began last year at the same time the Texas Transportation Institute released its "Urban Mobility Report 2009," showing the cost of traffic congestion: In 2007, the last year for which data were available, delays in Philadelphia cost the public 112 million lost hours and 71 million gallons of wasted fuel - or $2.3 billon.

New Jersey also tops records for road and bridge work, fueled largely by $652 million in federal stimulus aid, said Tim Greeley, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

"All of these construction projects are a necessary evil," said Jim Lardear, director of public and government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic, which covers the region from Virginia through New Jersey. "With the feds pushing stimulus money out the door . . . there is just no easy answer around congestion."

Traffic jams have become a way of life for Theo Karavangelas, manager of Pat's Family Restaurant near the old Marlton Circle, which is being replaced with an overpass carrying Route 73 above Route 70. He leaves his home in National Park, Gloucester County, at 8:15 a.m. for the 15-mile trip to work and gets there by 9 "on a good day." But sometimes he doesn't arrive until 10:30.

Even using a back road to avoid traffic at the circle doesn't help much. Everybody else is using the same strategy.

Traffic is also costing him. "Seventy percent of my business on a busy Friday night is delivery," Karavangelas, 34, said. "I've had to push back my delivery time from a half-hour to an hour. . . . It's hurt us pretty bad."

To help frustrated motorists, transportation officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey last year joined more than 30 other states in offering traffic information through 511 systems.

Motorists can dial 511 for updates or go to 511nj.org/ or www.511pa.com to get real-time camera views of key roads.

PennDot spokesman Gene Blaum said he couldn't recall a construction season with so much volume.

"We're in a record year of construction coming off a record year of contract awards," he said. "We can only do so much to minimize the impact. We have to be on the roadway."

The enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) last year and passage of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE) this year provided billions of dollars for state and local governments to repair and build roads and bridges.

ARRA stimulus money - $257.7 million for the five local Pennsylvania counties - made a big difference, driving the total up to $646 million, Blaum said.

"It meant 30 additional projects" that otherwise wouldn't have happened for a number of years, he said. This summer, 8,767 people were employed at construction sites across Pennsylvania, including 1,445 in the Philadelphia area, state officials said.

One of the projects is the Girard Point Bridge on I-95 near Philadelphia International Airport. The double-deck bridge is undergoing structural repairs and painting with help from $70 million in stimulus aid. But that work has reduced the number of lanes in off-peak hours, causing slowdowns and aggravating backups.

Route 1 between I-76 and Ridge Avenue also is undergoing a bridge rehabilitation, resulting in delays and shifts in traffic patterns. The work is scheduled to be completed by February.

"It's not just PennDot," Blaum said. "Utility work is also taking place, and municipalities are doing more."

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has two major widening projects in Montgomery and Chester Counties, said Carl DeFebo, a turnpike spokesman. Overhead bridges must be rebuilt before roadwork begins.

In New Jersey, more than 25 miles of I-295 in Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, and Salem Counties are being repaired and resurfaced. The projects cost nearly $170 million and affect numerous communities.

In Camden and Pennsauken, $7.8 million in drainage work on Route 30 will be followed by resurfacing. Traffic has been rerouted through part of the area.

"Recent AAA polling in the Philadelphia region shows that drivers think congestion is getting worse and is a major source of a growing aggressive-driving problem," Lardear said. "In construction zones, there is little margin for driver error."

Even before the upswing in roadwork, fatalities around Pennsylvania construction zones had increased 44 percent from 16 in 2004 to 23 in 2008, according to AAA.

"Rubbernecking is an issue," said Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

"As the congestion and resulting frustration brought on by work zones increase, so does the likelihood that some drivers will respond by driving more aggressively in an effort to shave minutes off their drive," Lardear said. "This is probably most obvious at merge points.

"The biggest contributing factors to accidents in work zones are inattentive driving and following too closely. Motorists must stay alert, obey the posted construction advisories, and slow down."

Sometimes, to escape the stressful driving, Alex Marshall of Lindenwold takes a break at the Barnes & Noble near the old Marlton Circle.

"It can be bad closer to the weekend because of the Shore traffic," said Marshall, 52, a radiation safety technician at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant.

"So sometimes on the way home, I just stop here for a coffee and chill."

Pennsylvania

State Department of Transportation construction and traffic conditions: Call 511 (in state) or 1-877-511-7366. Or visit www.511pa.com for real-time views.

For a list of construction sites in the Philadelphia area, visit go.philly.com/roadspa

New Jersey

State Department of Transportation construction and traffic conditions: Call 511 (in state) or 1-866-511-6538. Or visit 511nj.org for real-time views.

For a list of construction sites in New Jersey, visit go.philly.com/roadsnj

Driving through sites

In Pennsylvania, you must turn on headlights and drive no more than 11 m.p.h. in an active work zone or face a 15-day loss of license and doubled fines.

In New Jersey, fines can be doubled.

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A map and a list of the area's major transportation projects, A15.

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