Road by Murphy and Bon Jovi's houses just got repaved. Their neighbors are thankful - but skeptical.

When does a highway repaving seem to be more than a routine job? Maybe when it happens on a highway near the neighborhood shared by the governor and a rock star.

That appeared to be the reasoning by some Middletown residents, after the intersection of Route 35 and Navesink River Road was repaved earlier this month, creating a social media firestorm. Was Gov. Phil Murphy pulling strings to get the work done?

Murphy and another famous Jersey guy of note, Jon Bon Jovi, have palatial estates off Navesink River Road, where they can watch colorful sail boats ply the Navesink River. Getting to the rest of civilization involves a bumpy ride on pot marked and patched Navesink River Road, which is also considered Monmouth County Route 12A.

Residents on the Middletown New Jersey Facebook group went back and forth after a question was raised about whether the governor and the rock star flexed a little political muscle to get fresh pavement.

“The condition of that intersection has been horrible for many years. All of a sudden, within the past few weeks, the intersection has been repaved,” wrote Marcel Francisco, in a post directed at Murphy. “It seems extremely strange that that intersection, and ONLY that intersection has been recently repaved and, that Jon Bon Jovi is hosting a ‘Fund Raiser’ for Cory Booker at his residence in the very near future. Could there be a connection there?”

Read more: https://www.nj.com/traffic/2019/04/road-by-murphy-and-bon-jovis-houses-just-got-repaved-their-neighbors-are-thankful-but-skeptical.html