Construction on an extension of the Cherry Hill Road shared-use bicycle and pedestrian path is expected to begin in March, according to Princeton officials.
The Princeton Council awarded a contract for $1.5 million to Earle Asphalt Co. for the project in December 2024.
There is an existing shared-use bicycle and pedestrian path on Cherry Hill Road, between Route 206/State Road and Foulet Drive. The town is extending it from Foulet Drive to Crestview Drive on the ecologically sensitive Princeton Ridge.
Princeton received $750,000 in 2022 toward the cost of extending the path through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s bikeway grant program.
To minimize tree removal in the project area, Cherry Hill Road will be narrowed by two feet, officials said. The path will be eight feet wide instead of the standard 10-foot width.
The project is one phase of the goal to extend the bicycle and pedestrian path to the intersection of Cherry Hill Road and Cherry Valley Road.
Cherry Hill Road is the main route from the north/central residential areas to the schools and the Princeton Municipal Complex, officials said. The all-weather path will provide a valuable connection between residential developments and the Community Park School, the Princeton Middle School and Princeton High School.
Students who live within two miles of an elementary school and within two-and-a-half miles of the middle school and the high school are designated as “walkers” if a walkable route exists, such as a sidewalk or paved path, officials said.
But the lack of a sidewalk or paved path north of Foulet Drive means those neighborhoods have been designated for hazardous routes busing, which is paid for by the town, officials said.
The project, which had been requested by the adjacent neighborhoods, will allow more than a dozen students to be removed from the hazardous busing routes, officials said.
