Picket Place (CR 567) bridge replacement

The Picket Place bridge, County Bridge No. C0609, carries County Route 567 over the South Branch of the Raritan River between Branchburg and Hillsborough. It is a Somerset County project, carried out through the federally funded Local Capital Project Delivery program that NJDOT’s Local Aid District 3 administers, in coordination with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA). It is not a Township project.

Why it is being replaced. The county says the replacement addresses structural deficiencies and will meet current AASHTO, NJDOT and county design standards. The NJTPA program describes the existing bridge, built in 1979, as a four-span prestressed concrete structure whose substructure is in poor condition, with large spalls and exposed rusted reinforcing steel, and whose beams show spalls at their ends. The project site says the bridge has structural and functional limitations that do not meet today’s design standards.

Where it stands. Local Concept Development finished in summer 2020; the project’s news page says the study moved to Local Preliminary Engineering on July 1, 2020. The county’s page says detailed engineering and environmental studies in this phase are to obtain Federal Highway Administration approval of the environmental document, which qualifies the project for federal Final Design and Construction funds; the county released its request for proposals for this phase, RFP #CY-COM-9003-23, on Aug. 16, 2023. The project site lists Local Preliminary Engineering as the current phase, dated Fall 2024 to Summer 2026, with final design and right-of-way acquisition anticipated to start in 2028 and construction design-dependent.

The money. The NJTPA Transportation Improvement Program for FY2026–2029 lists the project as N1807, sponsored by Somerset County, with an estimated total cost of $18.616 million. It programs $1.9 million for design in fiscal 2027 and $50,000 for right-of-way in fiscal 2028, from federal STBGP-NY/NWK funds, and lists $15.8 million for construction in 2030–2035, outside the funded four-year program.

Public meetings. The project site lists Public Information Meeting No. 1 on May 2, 2019 at the Branchburg Municipal Building, on the purpose-and-need statement, and No. 2 on Oct. 17, 2019 at the Hillsborough Municipal Complex, presenting conceptual improvement alternatives. Its meetings page lists a virtual Local Officials Briefing No. 1 on April 17, 2025, then a Community Stakeholder Meeting (Summer 2025), Local Officials Briefing No. 2 (Fall 2025) and a Public Information Meeting (Fall 2025), each still marked “TBD” as of Oct. 30, 2026.

What residents can do. Review the county’s project page, the project’s maps and plans and meeting materials, use the project site’s contact channels, and attend the next announced project meeting.