Final touches put on capital improvement projects
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
12/20/2009

With the year coming to a close, the township is wrapping up its 2009 capital improvement program, with the Department of Public Works looking to complete several projects before the New Year.

The department continues to finish off the township’s road maintenance program, hoping to completely resurface 11 of 18 planned roadways by the end of the year.

The remaining seven roadways will be completed by the spring, Mayor Bernie Platt said. “It’s just one example that shows my administration’s continued commitment to maintaining the special quality of life we enjoy here,” he said.

Before the year’s out, the township will also complete repairs to the pedestrian bridge connecting Cooper’s Landing Road to the Cherry Hill Nationals Little League facility – an initiative that stems from a Department of Transportation grant as well.

The township will also continue to look to the state for grant opportunities to help fund capital improvement projects for 2010.

In 2009 the DPW was able to successfully apply for a grant from the state department of transportation.

The department awarded Cherry Hill $250,000 in funding to complete the reconstruction of Covered Bridge Road to Forge Road.

Covered Bridge Road is a main roadway for the Barclay Farm neighborhood and is home to the historic Cherry Hill Covered Bridge that turned 50 years old in 2009. Field work, survey and design for this road were completed earlier this year and engineering has started for this project.

Township engineers recently completed plans for two phases of the heavily traveled street’s impending upgrade project – stretching from Route 70 past Beaverbrook to Forge Road. Roadwork will begin in spring 2010 for the second phase and hopefully be completed in time for the one-year anniversary of the restoration of Covered Bridge, township representatives said.

“We are fortunate to have an extremely capable DPW and Engineering units able to aggressively go after state discretionary funding for initiatives such as these that don’t fit in our annual capital-improvement budget,” Platt said. “This saves our taxpayers the cost of outsourcing grant applications.

“It goes without saying that obtaining this additional funding is critical in our efforts to stretch every penny to the limit by subsidizing local tax dollars.”

Sections of sidewalk along Evesham Road and the new pathway from the high-speed line to Cherry Hill’s border with Lawnside – which were finished early this summer – are also examples of the state providing funding for capital projects, Platt said.

Also, in spring the township has plans for a new sidewalk to connect the Short Hills neighborhood to the nearby ShopRite shopping center, hopefully funded by the state as well.

Finally, 2009 was the year the township finished an extensive three-part resurfacing initiative on the Walt Whitman Boulevard.

“Our ongoing investment in capital improvements is one of the reasons Cherry Hill a great place to live, work and thrive,” Platt said. “In fact, you couldn’t pick a better place.”