The building is surrounded by a chain-link fence for the construction project.
For Garden State Parkway motorists passing by at 70 mph or faster, the tiny building right before Exit 13 southbound may have been confused with a quaint home.
Designed with a decorative red-brick facade, a chimney and old-fashioned shutters, the building is one of the last vestiges of the Parkway’s original construction in 1954.
Since the 1950s, it has served as a substation for the New Jersey State Police unit that patrols the southern part of the Parkway in Cape May County.
But now, construction crews are preparing to demolish the old building near Avalon Boulevard to make room for a new police substation that will closely resemble the original.
The New Jersey Highway Authority, the Parkway’s operating agency, is building two new police substations near Avalon Boulevard and in Pleasant Plains, Ocean County, at a total cost of $11.4 million.
“The buildings are being replaced because they’re inadequate. The new buildings will look substantially like the existing ones on the outside,” said Tom Feeney, a spokesman for the highway authority.
The police substation is located on the southbound side of the Garden State Parkway by Exit 13.The Pleasant Plains substation will be relocated to a site about 7½ miles south at the northern end of the Parkway’s Celia Cruz Service Area property, Feeney said.
However, the substation near Avalon Boulevard will stay at the existing site. It is located in Middle Township on the Parkway’s southbound side, right before Exit 13 leading to Avalon and Swainton.
The old building has been surrounded by a chain-link construction fence. Demolition will begin this month.
Construction on its replacement will begin by spring and is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year, Feeney said.
In the meantime, trailers have been set up behind the building to serve as temporary quarters for State Police Troop D during the construction project.
The building's design includes a chimney and old-fashioned shutters.
