Bellmawr’s Exit 3 is already a traffic nightmare for residents. Will a turnpike expansion make it worse — or fix it?

Along parts of South Jersey’s Black Horse Pike, deep grooves are worn into the pavement. The cause: 18-wheelers leaving and entering the New Jersey Turnpike at Exit 3 in Bellmawr.

In addition to the massive trucks, cars with out-of-state plates wind through residential streets, their drivers following GPS directions through Runnemede and Bellmawr to get where they’re going.

People traveling east or west from the turnpike have no choice but to cut through the small Camden County communities along a five-mile section of the Black Horse Pike — also known as Route 168 — because there are no direct highway links to Philadelphia or to Atlantic City and Shore points.

The congestion can be so bad that first responders plot alternate routes to get around traffic in emergencies.

Now, residents worry that a project to widen the turnpike will bring even more cars and trucks through their small Camden County communities unless a new interchange is built to funnel some of the Exit 3 traffic directly to a nearby highway. Local officials in four towns and the county commissioners are pushing to make it happen.

“There are a multitude of reasons we are working on this. It’s not just because residents are tired of sitting in traffic,” said State Assemblyman Bill Moen (D., Camden), who has helped lead the drive for a workaround.

“It puts a lot of wear and tear on the roadways — and the cost is being pushed off to local governments,” he said.

While the $2 billion widening project is underway, the officials say, it would be relatively easy for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to create another outlet for traffic, with new ramps or connector roads linking the tollway with Route 42.

From there, through traffic could head west on I-676/76 toward the Walt Whitman Bridge or east and south to the Atlantic City Expressway.

The authority plans to add two lanes in each direction on the 36.5 miles between Exit 1 and Exit 4 at Route 73 in Mount Laurel. Engineering work for the areas around Exits 2 and 3 is scheduled to begin in 2024, with construction there getting underway in 2028, officials said.

“Turnpike Authority officials have pledged to work cooperatively with other agencies to try to identify a viable solution to the issues that have been raised about Interchange 3,” said Tom Feeney, spokesperson for the authority.

Bellmawr police reported 211 motor-vehicle crashes over the last two years on its stretch of the Black Horse Pike, which is less than a mile long, Police Chief William P. Walsh said. (There were 300 crashes in the entire borough in that time.)

He assigns a patrol car to the area around Exit 3 each morning and afternoon. “A lot of traffic is moving through there,” Walsh said. “People drive crazy, running in the center [turn] lane, using the shoulders.”

Traffic reaches a peak in the Jersey Shore season, Bellmawr Mayor Chuck Sauter said. “Fridays in the summer are impossible,” he said.

Borough residents already have borne their share, and perhaps more, of snarled traffic and Bellmawr has been the main site of the $1.1 billion Direct Connection construction project to better link Interstates 295 and 76 and Route 42, which began in 2013.

In late March 2021, a retaining wall there collapsed, possibly setting back the scheduled 2028 completion date for the work. Residents say they make sure to time their errands, if possible, for times when traffic is lighter.

The historic Black Horse Pike, which runs from the Camden area to Atlantic City and today comprises parts of several numbered routes, has its roots in the colonial era. It was constructed in the 1920s and spurred development of the towns through which it passed.

It is a commercial corridor lined with seemingly random strip malls, fast-food restaurants, gas stations, and shopping centers. Several attempts to redevelop the Black Horse Pike into a cohesive destination have sputtered over the years.

Zachary Houck, the mayor of Haddon Heights, said the traffic generated by Exit 3 can be “hellish” and the area needs relief, but he also thinks the pike is underused and has more potential, with streetscaping and new and spruced-up businesses.

“An investment in the Black Horse Pike is an opportunity, within reason, to leverage that [traffic] for the growth of our economy,” Houck said.

The issue of what to do about Exit 3 touches on the enduring political tension between more populous North Jersey and the southern half of the state over spending priorities.

U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D., N.J.), who represents the towns near Exit 3, noted that South Jersey has grown rapidly in the last few decades. The Turnpike Authority has been widening northern portions of the road for years and is now pursuing a $10 billion project to widen the elevated approach from Newark Liberty International Airport to the Holland Tunnel entrance.

“South Jersey seems to always be the last in line,” Norcross said. “We’re going to raise our voices and get what we need and deserve. We’re well overdue.”