TIGER 1 Update - Camden County Freeholders Award Contract for Bike Lanes and Streetscape

Staying focused this week on what is undoubtedly one of New Jersey's neediest places for bicycle and pedestrian improvements, our affiliates at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia bring us this story about the continued progress of the highly competitive TIGER Grant that will focus some much needed monies into Camden's bike/ped accommodations.   Enjoy!

On Thursday evening the Camden County Freeholders voted on the following resolution -

"Resolution authorizing an award of Contract (Bid A-10) by and between the County of Camden (Department of Public Works) and Lexa Concrete, LLC, for the 2011 Transportation Capital Program, American Recovery Investment Act TIGER Grant, Pyne [sic] Street Greenway Enhancement Project and Martin Luther King Boulevard, Waterfront Connection Project in an amount not to exceed $2,520,648.55"

This means that construction on two of the three Camden TIGER segments can now move forward, it usually takes at least several weeks between the award of a contract and the first shovel in the ground. The projects will include Camden's first bike lanes (MLK), sharrows, road repair and streetscape improvements.

The third segment, Pearl St adjacent to the Ben Franklin Bridge has been delayed due to the collapse of the bulkhead adjacent to the Camden Waterfront Promenade. DVRPC the regional planning commission has allocated additional money to the project to design and construct the new bulkhead. Once the design has been completed that project will go out to bid and which holds out hope that all three projects will be completed by the end of the year.

The construction of the project coincides with the rehabilitation of Farnham Park which includes a new multi-use trail through the park which will connect with the City's only marked bike facility - a two way sidepath on the south side of Kaighns Ave, which heads towards Cooper River Park a location where we pointed out the difficulty of crossing route 130 to get to the main section of the park.

View Pine Street in Camden in a Larger Map