Some roads to the South Jersey shore have a new look.  KYW’s Mike DeNardo explains what has changed in the off-season on the way to the beach.

By Mike DeNardo

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) — On the way to the shore, there are three lanes on the Atlantic City Expressway east of Route  73.

But coming home Sunday night, drivers know the delays when three lanes of homebound traffic squeeze down to two.

“If you’re from Philadelphia, if you have a Pennsylvania license plate and you go to the shore, you’ve been caught in shore traffic,” laments one driver familiar with the situation.

South Jersey Transportation Authority spokesman Kevin Rehmann (below) says there is a westbound widening project underway, but it’s not done yet.

“We’ve taken great steps to add a third lane coming west to alleviate some of the traffic jams,” he tells KYW Newsradio.

(Kevin Rehmann, standing in front of an aerial photograph of a portion of the Atlantic City Expressway. Credit: Mike DeNardo)

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“Anybody who has experienced — particularly in the summer months — the shore traffic as they got off the (NJ) Turnpike or came out of Atlantic City where it went from three lanes to two and has been stuck in those traffic jams through sheer volume and lane capacity, will understand why we undertook this project,” he adds.

Rehmann says that $15 million worth of work to add a third lane to the AC Expressway, from the Garden State Parkway to the Egg Harbor tolls, was wrapped up last year, but the current job to extend the westbound third lane won’t quite be finished for Memorial Day.

“The completion of Phase II goes all the way to milepost 25, which is almost to Hammonton,” he says.  “That should be done mid-July.”

There are plans to extend the third westbound lanes all the way to Route 73, but Rehmann says that job hasn’t gone out to bid yet.

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“Shore Bets to the Beach.”