Cherry Hill’s ongoing frustration: What’s the best way to navigate Route 70 today?

The N.J. Department of Transportation’s Route 70 corridor safety and improvement project is a $153 million top-to-bottom rebuild of a nearly nine-mile stretch of four- and six-lane highway between Pennsauken and Marlton. The daily traffic count for Route 70 in Cherry Hill is about 80,500 vehicles, according to the department.

The long, flat, and in places, slow stretch of the highway through Cherry Hill is chockablock with retail businesses, restaurants, office buildings, medical centers, convenience stores, and car dealerships.

It’s both a Main Street and a main drag for a dozen or so densely populated neighborhoods immediately north or south of the highway, such as Erlton, Barclay, and Kingston.

Often these days, traffic slows to a crawl, and residents, business owners and people passing through encounter lane shifts, detours, and street closures.

Among those frustrated is township council president and Mayor-elect Dave Fleisher.

“I’m disappointed in the level of communication coming from the DOT,” said Fleisher, who will be sworn in Jan. 2. “It’s unacceptable for a small-business owner to wake up with their entrance blocked. It’s difficult for residents to navigate the changing traffic patterns, especially when the patterns are changed without notice.”

The DOT aims to keep travel lanes open and maintain access to businesses and residential areas despite multiple worksites and the multitude of tasks involved. These include fully excavating and rebuilding some sections, installing 14,500 feet of new water mains and 18,000 feet of new gas mains, as well as upgrading signals, signage, and other infrastructure at 27 major intersections, said Steven Schapiro, the department’s press manager. The project is expected to be completed in early 2027.

Regardless of the construction-related challenges, Elias Bitar is confident his customers will “find a way” to Norma’s.

His family’s Eastern Mediterranean restaurant and market in the Barclay Farms Shopping Center opened in 1992. Since 2021, when the state began rebuilding Route 70 in the township, “we’ve been fortunate not to have problems getting our guests in the door,” Bitar said.

In a statement, the DOT described the Route 70 project as “a priority for the department. We have been responsive on any issues brought to our attention and will continue to do so.”

“We have had meetings with town officials and residents when they requested them, and we are committed to continued communication with Mayor-elect Fleisher. These meetings are in addition to the public information session held before the project began, numerous local official briefings, and the news conference we held last year with the local officials.”

“There’s a joke going around Barclay about ‘what lanes will we be driving on today?’ ” said Eliza Babcock, a Realtor at KW Cherry Hill who lives in the neighborhood. “People understand there’s been deferred maintenance, and that there are infrastructure needs.”

“But it feels like the DOT forgot that people drive on Route 70. It feels like this project gave no consideration to residents or commuters,” said Babcock, adding that a recent mile-long drive from Barclay to Erlton for her daughter’s music lesson took 25 minutes.

Anne Einhorn has long been active in the Greater Kingston Civic Association, which provides a voice to residents of the Kingston Estates neighborhood across Route 70 from Barclay.

“Getting into and out of Kingston and getting through Kingston itself has become a debacle. You never know what roads are going to be closed off,” Einhorn said, speaking for herself and not the association.

“It’s such a disruption of everyday life,” she said. “They [DOT] need to let us know about alternate routes. But in defense of the DOT, so many people are driving too fast. They need to slow down!”

Yolanda Lorenz, a retired therapist, longtime Kingston resident, and advocate for pedestrian and cyclist safety, said: “Kingston and Barclay are sister communities, and many of us would like to use the crosswalk on 70 to go over to Barclay, but we avoid it at all costs. You know how fast people drive these days.”

In the Erlton neighborhoods on both sides of 70 between Haddonfield Road and Kings Highway, homes, businesses and offices are close to one another and to traffic.

Kevin King is the owner of Framers’ Workroom, one in a row of stores on the westbound side.

“I live in Fishtown, and I survived the I-95 construction,” he said. “I survived the recession, and COVID, but this Route 70 project is going to be tough.”

King said he was going to lose the parking in front of his store. “No more parking for customers, or deliveries, except around the corner. A solution would be the parking lot at the closed bank, but it’s not available.”

The project is behind schedule, due mainly to discovery of a culvert beneath a portion of Route 70 where no culvert was known to exist, which required more construction related to a nearby gas main installation. Additional work also was needed to address what the DOT described as “unknown underground utilities” that were in the way.

“To mitigate delays, we have multiple crews working simultaneously through the winter,” Schapiro said.

Other residents and business owners were concerned about the project’s landscaping: Some 316 trees have been or will be removed.

The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection has approved a DOT reforestation plan to replant 236 trees. That plan also includes $24,000 that will be made available to Cherry Hill for planting trees elsewhere in the community to compensate for those not replanted within the project limits.

At Norma’s, Bitar saw a bright side.

“We are a business that’s a destination,” he said. “But maybe the traffic slowdown near us on 70 will give someone who’s never noticed us before an opportunity to notice us.”