Road projects gain funding
New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri announced last week that the DOT will award $78.75 million in municipal aid to fund street improvement, rehabilitation and safety projects in 438 New Jersey towns.

Several area communities will receive funding, according to information provided by the DOT.

"The municipal aid program enables the state of New Jersey to provide municipalities direct property tax relief, create jobs and improve the condition of the local road networks," Kolluri said.

Municipal aid grants provide funding to municipalities that would otherwise devote local tax revenue to road improvement projects.

Municipal governments maintain more than 25,000 miles, or approximately 70 percent, of New Jersey's 36,000 miles of roads. Local property taxes seldom provide sufficient funds for road repair and maintenance, according to a press release from the DOT.

Area municipalities that are scheduled to receive municipal aid in Fiscal Year 2008 are:

• Colts Neck, $150,000, Heyers Mill Road project.

• Freehold Borough, $210,000, Center Street project.

• Freehold Township, $155,000, Schanck Road project, phase two.

• Manalapan, $160,000, Symmes Drive project.

• Marlboro, $160,000, Union Hill Road project.

DOT encourages municipalities to apply for municipal aid. The grant program covers a variety of projects including road resurfacing, rehabilitation, reconstruction and signalization.

In order to advance the governor's pedestrian safety initiative, DOT encourages municipal officials to apply for municipal aid to fund projects that support walking and biking in their communities, according to the press release.

The municipal aid program is directly funded by the Transportation Trust Fund. DOT allots each county a specific funding amount based on its population and road mileage and distributes funds to towns based on field investigations and engineering evaluations of proposed projects. DOT provides 75 percent of the grant amount to the municipalities when a contract is awarded and the remaining 25 percent upon completion of the project.

This year DOT will fund 440 of the 835 grant requests received. Funding for this program is limited to $78.75 million; DOT received more than $237 million in requests.