BY TOM HESTER SR.
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The three northbound lanes of Route 287 at Boonton in Morris County reopened on Thursday, the New Jersey Department of Transportation announced.

Route 206 near Quaker Road in Princeton Township also reopened Thursday afternoon.

Six roadways in New Jersey, including three in Passaic County, still have storm damage or flooding requiring full roadway closures. The roadways include Route 206 in Princeton, Route 29 in Hopewell Township, Route 33 in Hightstown, Route 20 in Paterson and Routes 46 and 23 in Wayne.

DOT Commissioner James Simpson said the department has winnowed a list of 700 highway obstructions to 14 in five days. Assemblyman Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) commended state transportation officials for getting 287 opened just three days after a portion of it crumbled into the Rockaway River.

High winds and flooding associated with Hurricane Irene prompted the DOT to check each of its 1,800 bridges that span a waterway. Half of the bridges have been found to have no structural damages. The DOT has reached out to county engineers to offer technical assistance in their work to assess any damage to the approximately 2,500 county-owned bridges.

New Jersey residents have made use of the 511 telephone and web-based traffic information system during and after the storm to stay informed about road conditions, closures and detours.

Normal call volume to 511 is about 5,000 calls per weekday. Between Friday and Wednesday, there were more than 80,000 calls for information. Visits to www.511nj.org exceeded 381,000 during the period and resulted in 780,000 page views and 8,000 transfers to other transportation agencies. Normally the website attracts 7,000 visits per day.

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/CtOfAbl_Cqc/nj-dot-makes-progress-on-route-287-and-other-hurricane-related-highway-obstructions