Round Valley Reservoir road will open 'permanently' on Nov. 15
FLEMINGTON – Hunterdon County Route 629 around Round Valley Reservoir will reopen "permanently" on Nov. 15, County Commissioner John Lanza has announced.
Lanza's announcement, met with applause at Tuesday's commissioners meeting, came after Lanza met with New Jersey Water Supply Authority (NJWASA) officials to discuss the Authority's proposal to close the scenic road because of security concerns.
Lanza said that Marc Brooks, the Authority's executive director, agreed to study long-term security enhancements that do not involve the road's closure.
Lanza thanked Brooks and his staff for listening to the concerns of the public and commissioners about the road closure.
More than 2,600 signatures were made on an online petition opposing the road closure.
The NJWSA, which operates Round Valley and Spruce Run reservoirs, said earlier this year that it intended to ask the county to permanently close the road because of security concerns. The road has been closed because of the ongoing work to upgrade the dams at the state's largest reservoir.
That proposal unleashed a flood of opposition from area residents who said the closure would isolate their neighborhoods and critically increase the time to reach Hunterdon Medical Center in Raritan Township, the county's only hospital, and push traffic onto already crowded Route 22.
Earlier:Hunterdon officials 'skeptical' of plan to close Round Valley Reservoir road
Robert Quinlan, who started the petition, told the county commissioners that the decision to keep the road open "will make a lot of people happy."
He thanked the commissioners' for working with the NJSWA on the issue.
"We're very grateful," he said.
The road has been closed since April 2020 during the refurbishment of the reservoir's dam system. The road, known as Cherry Street in Lebanon Borough, approaches the reservoir through a one-lane underpass under NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line, then circles around the crest of the reservoir in one of New Jersey's most scenic drives on top of one of the dams.
In a public message sent last week, the Authority said security concerns increased after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The dams are among the tallest in the state and contain 55 billion gallons of water when the reservoir is full
A 2012 report on terrorism safety at the reservoir by the Department of Homeland Security, the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection recommended security measures including access control and vehicular barriers.
But Authority management decided at the time the road was essential to Hunterdon's road network and did not seek closure.
However, when few complaints were made after the road closed because of the dam project, the Authority approached the county about what steps were needed to close the road permanently.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Round Valley Reservoir road will open 'permanently'
