After months of delays, the ribbon was cut last Tuesday for the Hightstown Bypass, signaling open season on many of the remaining greenfields in East Windsor Township (Mercer County, NJ). The NJ DOT pushed through approval for the construction of the contested four-lane, 3.8 mile highway in early 1996, claiming it would re-route local and Turnpike-bound traffic that has clogged Hightstown's main arteries. However, projections suggest the new road is unlikely to mean fewer jams for downtown Hightstown due to the extra drivers brought to the area by the rash of development the Bypass may soon inspire.

Though zoned for commercial development, the Bypass' route is still primarily small forest stands and tilled fields. But the area's rural character is now threatened. Realtors, developers, and the East Windsor Township's Economic Development Committee are heavily marketing the easy access to the Turnpike and Rt.1 that the new road provides. Their efforts have already been rewarded with substantial corporate interest in turning area properties into high-tech office parks, manufacturing plants, and shopping centers. Such events have been long anticipated: the environmental impact statement for the highway acknowledged that over 2 million square feet of commercial or industrial real estate development could be stimulated by the bypass.

NJDOT anticipates the Bypass will attract up to 55,000 cars and trucks per day, but this will amount to just 22% of peak hour traffic volumes measured in Hightstown in 1994. For this reason, residents opposed the highway for years as an unnecessary disturbance to some seventy acres of wildlife habitat and as an eyesore and health risk to those who live along its path. It's likely now that the area will experience an a greater overall traffic burden.

Bypass drivers themselves are unlikely to escape back-ups as they end or begin their trip on West Windsor's Rte 571 where four main intersections have operated at or above capacity since 1981. Swelled by Hightstown's diverted traffic, gridlock will probably just move down the road. The situation may also be worsened by local trucks that will jump to the east-west route.