Gov. Phil Murphy yesterday announced the state’s fiscal year 2020 municipal aid grant awards, with just over $161 million awarded to 542 towns, or 96% of the state’s municipalities.
The state will award 38 of 40 Burlington County towns just over $9 million total to help improve roads across the county in 2020.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday announced the state’s fiscal year 2020 municipal aid grant awards, with just over $161 million awarded to 542 towns.
Its the first round of awards under the new municipal aid grant cycle to allow for municipalities to better budget and plan projects for the coming year. The New Jersey Department of Transportation announced in May it was accelerating the fiscal year 2020 grant cycle to allow for the awards to be announced in November.
“Our administration sought to deliver a fairer approach to how government does business and this round of grants will, in the third straight year, reach more municipalities than in the previous fiscal year,” said Murphy in a statement. “Today, by awarding grants to 542 municipalities in the state, nearly 96% of all cities and towns in New Jersey will be poised to break ground as the construction season begins.”
Municipal aid grant money helps towns advance road, bridge, safety and quality-of-life improvements. In the past years, towns were required to submit applications to NJDOT by October. This year, applications were submitted to the Department by July and reviewed over the summer.
“This change, along with NJDOT’s new Local Aid Resource Center, are making a real difference in providing municipalities the resources to improve safety and increase the reliability of the State’s transportation system at all levels of government,” said NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti.
In Burlington County, only two towns did not receive a 2020 municipal aid grant — Riverton and Wrightstown. Most towns received around $250,000 for roadway preservation work, with communities qualifying for urban aid under state law receiving more.
The towns to receive the most were Willingboro, at $347,586 for the resurfacing of Pennypacker Drive and S. Sunset Road; Pemberton Township, at $277,046 for improvements to South Lakeshore Drive; and Mount Holly, at $275,434 for improvements to Smith Lane.
Under the program, each county is allotted a share of the total funding based on population and number of local centerline miles.
The NJDOT provides towns 75% of the grant amount when a contract is awarded and the remaining 25% upon completion of the project. There are seven types of projects eligible for municipal aid funding: roadway preservation, roadway safety, quality of life, mobility, bikeway, pedestrian safety, and bridge preservation.
NJDOT has awarded nearly $1.2 billion to local governments during the first 18 months of the Murphy Administration.