The plan calls for the elimination of the problematic jughandle at Half Mile Road that eastbound motorists now have to use to access the parkway’s northbound lanes. Below, a 2013 schematic of the planned changes. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Attention Red Bank area motorists: Exit 109 of the Garden State Parkway is in line for a two-year, $60 million reconstruction,  NJ.com reports.

Work on the Lincroft interchange at Newman Springs Road won’t start until 2017, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority tells transportation writer Larry Higgs.

But the authority, which owns the Parkway, is giving commuters a first look at what’s to come – including a new “flyover” ramp from eastbound Newman Springs Road onto the northbound parkway lanes to replace the dreaded Half Mile Road jughandle – at an information session scheduled for Thursday in Middletown.

From NJ.com:

The core of the project calls for replacing four aging bridges that carry the express and local lanes of the parkway over Newman Springs Road and widening the road, also known as county Route 520.

The project would move the Parkway’s Northbound lanes to the west and toward the highway center median to improve conditions at the interchange and bring it to current design standards, Feeney said.

Among the more ambitious features is a new flyover bridge to take traffic headed to the Parkway north from Newman Springs Road east. Traffic that now uses a jughandle to travel from Newman Springs to Mile Road would use a new left turn lane at the intersection.

A 2013 NJTA report detailing planned highway improvements in Monmouth and Ocean counties also indicates that area motorists will get more immediate access to the northbound parkway from southbound Half Mile Road, via a new connector road that crosses Schultz Drive. The new road would tie into Half Mile Road several hundred feet north of the intersection with Newman Springs Road.

Thursday’s event is scheduled for 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Middletown Township Public Library, 55 New Monmouth Road. In a news release, the NJTA says authority representatives will be available “to explain the proposed improvements to individuals or small groups. Interested drivers, residents and other stakeholders are invited to drop by any time during the event to look at the displays and ask questions.”

Additional information may be found here.