The Oppenheimers, formerly Rocky Hill residents now living in Griggstown, protesting the forced closure of the Rocky Hill Bridge on August 23. Thanks to Gov. Christie, the closure may last until Spring 2017. The Governor claims he hasn’t heard “regular folks” protesting the closures. See “Report from Rocky Hill”.
Flooding obstructed passage over the D&R Canal at the Griggstown Causeway and all the way north to Amwell Road, as the Blackwell Mills Road causeway in Hillsborough was also heavily flooded after rainfall during the last weekend of July. Police barricades could be seen up and down River Road for several days.
From Montgomery and Rocky Hill, the first and most accessible eastbound crossing over the weekend was River Road in Rocky Hill to Rt. 27, especially since the State halted construction on the Rt. 518 bridge earlier in July.
At the Montgomery School District’s July 19 meeting, Board President Christine Witt laid out concerns with September and the start of classes in mind as she’s witnessed traffic chaos in her hometown Rocky Hill in recent weeks.
“I guess everyone is aware that the traffic flow is very backed up,” Witt said. “But the fact is that the 518 bridge project was supposed to begin July 5 and end August 6, and two days after they started it they stopped all work on State DOT projects. No work is being done on that bridge and I am concerned about what happens when school starts.”
Superintendent of Schools Nancy Gartenberg assured Witt and other board members at the meeting that MTSD administration “is on it and will update the school board.” School board member Nick IIladick then spoke about precedent for local leadership getting involved to impact state projects.
“The mayor of Piscataway actually was involved with a similar situation when a state road leading to a school underwent a repair and with the concerns,” Hladick explained. “He said the DOT projects are already paid for and are not part of the future state Transportation Trust Fund, so they should keep working. The mayor there had that authority so I don’t know if we can work with the Township Committee on this.”
Witt said the best Montgomery’s school leadership can do is make calls to Governor Christie’s office.