In November 2022, the rebuild of Route 322 and Fries Mill Road was expected to start later that year and take six to nine months. Gloucester County and Monroe Township officials celebrated its completion on Thursday, September 3, 2026.
Officials connected development there to the road work for years, and the plans that waited are now moving. Heritage's broke ground about eight weeks after the ribbon came down. Two weeks before that, the township announced two more commercial projects for the same corner.
A project older than most of the cars that use it
The intersection was proposed as early as 2006, according to the Courier-Post. Monroe designed it first, back when the township planned to build it itself. Gloucester County took control at the township's request around November and December 2021 and reworked those plans substantially. Ownership of the roads explains some of the friction. Fries Mill Road is county Route 655, and Route 322 falls under state transportation jurisdiction.
Here is how the construction years played out:
- January 30, 2023: The county directed R.E. Pierson Construction to begin. NJDOT funded the job at an estimated cost of nearly $6.77 million.
- October 6, 2023: About eight months of work had carried the project past its halfway point when it was stopped. State environmental and transportation officials needed more stormwater control basins planned, plus borings to confirm groundwater elevations.
- Week of June 9, 2025: County work was scheduled to restart.
- August 31, 2026: The new traffic arrangement was scheduled to go live.
- September 3, 2026: County and township officials marked the completion.
Funding was also at risk at one point. Mayor Gregory Wolfe told the Courier-Post that the state withdrew the money over a lack of progress, and he credited state Sen. Fred Madden with getting it restored.
What actually changed at the light
The old intersection had a single approach lane in each direction. A driver waiting to turn left during a busy stretch held up everyone behind them. Wolfe lives near the intersection, and he described the result to the Courier-Post: "That Pitman-Downer Road to Fries Mill Road in front of the golf course, traffic backs up there for about a mile during rush hour coming home."
The newest volume figures the Courier-Post could cite came from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. Fries Mill Road north of Route 322 carried 14,555 vehicles a day as of January 2020. Route 322 east of Fries Mill carried 13,706 a day in October 2019. As of early 2024, the county estimated that current volumes ran 6 to 9 percent higher. That means two roads of nearly equal weight were crossing through single lanes.
The rebuilt corner has dedicated left, through and right-turn lanes on three of its four approaches. Eastbound Route 322 has two lanes, one for left turns and one shared by through and right-turning traffic. Each approach was widened well back from the light to give cars room to queue, and the county added new signals, sidewalks, curbing, crosswalks and a redesigned stormwater system with retention basins. The writer at 42Freeway drove through around 3 p.m. on Friday, September 4, heading into Labor Day shore traffic. He found it "moving very smoothly, with surprisingly little queuing."
Gloucester County Commissioner Matthew Weng, the board's liaison to the highway department, said this about the completion, as quoted by 42Freeway:
"We're thrilled to get this project completed. The intersection should now be not only safer, but move traffic through much more efficiently. There were roadblocks and delays along the way."
He credited state, county and local governments with persevering and working together to finish it.
Heritage's had its approval in 2023 and waited for the road
The township tied this corner's growth to the road work from the start, and the plainest evidence is in a January 2024 interview with the Courier-Post. Wolfe said: "We just approved the plans for a brand-new, state-of-the-art Heritage's store, which would be the third ever in our township. And that's because the intersection is going to be done, and it's going to see a lot of traffic through there."
42Freeway first reported that approval in November 2023. The store then waited out the same stall the road did. The intersection was finished in early September. In late October, members of the Heritage's family and local officials, including Wolfe, held a groundbreaking. The company says all approvals are in place, some site preparation has started, and it is aiming to open in spring 2027, ideally in April.
This will be a newly built convenience store facing the intersection, and it will have no gas pumps. Heritage's is a family-owned South Jersey chain based in Thorofare, West Deptford, with dairy-farming roots going back to 1930 and almost three dozen stores today. Its locations stock everyday groceries, a coffee bar and a deli where employees slice lunch meat to order for hoagies. For anyone in the developments along Fries Mill or Glassboro Road, it gives a closer option for a gallon of milk or a sandwich than the run into Williamstown's center.
More projects announced for the same corner
Heritage's was just the first project to move. On October 15, the Township of Monroe–Williamstown used its Facebook page to announce two commercial projects for the area around the intersection. The plans had been shown to township officials the week before as an early preview, and formal reviews are still ahead.
South State Inc. operations center. The proposal is a three-story glass building of 33,000 square feet for South State, a transportation contractor whose South Jersey work includes the I-295 Direct Connection in Bellmawr. Site-plan images put it on a wooded part of the property near the intersection, with rear-facing views toward Scotland Run's holes 14, 15 and 16.
A second clubhouse at Scotland Run Golf Club. The course at 2626 Fries Mill Road was built on a former quarry, and the old quarry's elevation changes shape its holes. Scotland Run moved to members-only golf for the 2025 season. The planned second clubhouse, behind and to the left of the existing one, would serve members.
Township officials said both projects could bring new tax ratables, jobs and economic activity. Separately, a 339-unit single-family attached development for the northwest section of the intersection is going through the planning process.
The pattern fits what Wolfe described in 2024, when he said "residential and commercial development there" was being discussed while the road was still half built. The corner that drivers knew for its mile-long backup is now drawing plans for a convenience store, an office building, a clubhouse and attached homes.
The clubhouse that stays public, and its holiday calendar
One part of the corner is open today. Even with the members-only clubhouse planned, the existing Scotland Run clubhouse is expected to keep serving the public for dining, weddings and banquets. Inside it, the Highlander Pub & Grill is closed Mondays. It serves lunch and dinner from noon Tuesday through Saturday, and on Sunday it runs brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. along with lunch and dinner from noon. Reservations and online ordering are available on its site.
From mid-November through New Year's Eve, the Highlander's posted calendar includes:
- Autumn wine dinner, Friday, November 13
- Holiday pie class, Wednesday, November 18
- Thanksgiving buffet, Thursday, November 26
- Holiday cookie class, Saturday, December 5
- Brunch with Santa and Mickey, Sunday, December 6
- Dickens murder-mystery dinner, Thursday, December 10
- Brunch with Santa and the Grinch, Sunday, December 13
- Christmas by Candlelight dinner, Thursday, December 17
- Christmas Eve dinner, Thursday, December 24
- New Year's Eve dinner, Thursday, December 31
A dinner reservation there works differently now. With the turn lanes in, getting to the Highlander on a December evening means a dedicated left lane in place of sitting behind one driver waiting for a gap in Route 322 traffic.
If you live near Fries Mill and Glassboro Road and want to talk through how projects like Heritage's, the South State building or the new attached-home plan could change your corner of Williamstown, Quandell Iglesia follows Monroe Township's planning calendar and is happy to share what he's watching. Let's Connect.
