Path to node modules in webpack.config.js

I have a project consisting of several apps and want to be able to build the complete project using a global webpack.config.js, with webpack 3.0 (which works). At the same time, I want to have local webpack.config.js files to build each project seperately. The project structure is as follows:

- src
  - project_1
    ...
    webpack.config.js
  ...
  - project_n
    ...
    webpack.config.js
  ...
  node_modules
  webpack.config.js

Obviously, I don't want to copy the node_modules in the project subfolders. How can I reference the global node_modules folder from the webpack.config.js of a project subfolder?

I tried

resolve: {
    modules: [path.resolve(__dirname,'../node_modules')]
},

in one of the subfolder webpack configs but I get many errors of the type

error TS2304: Cannot find name [...]

because apparently node_modules cannot be located.

Here is my complete webpack.config.js for project_1:

var webpack = require('webpack');
const path = require("path")

module.exports =  {
    entry: path.resolve(__dirname, "src/project_1.ts"),
    output: {
        filename: "project_1_bundle.js",
        path:  path.resolve(__dirname, "bin")
    },
    externals: [
        "angular",
        "uuid",
        {
            "lodash": {
                commonjs: "lodash",
                amd: "lodash",
                root: "_" // indicates global variable
            }
        },
        {
            "jquery": {
                root: "$",
                amd: "jquery",
                commonjs: 'jquery'
            }
        },
        {
            "jquery-ui": {
                amd: "jquery-ui",
                commonjs: 'jquery-ui'
            }
        },
        {
            "Slick": {
                root: "Slick",
                amd: "Slick",
                commonjs: 'Slick'
            }
        }
    ],
    devtool: 'source-map',
    resolve: {
    // Add `.ts` and `.tsx` as a resolvable extension.
    extensions: ['.webpack.js', '.web.js', '.ts', '.tsx', '.js'],
    modules: [path.resolve(__dirname,'../node_modules')]
    },
    module: {
        rules: [
            {
                enforce: 'pre',
                test: /\.ts$/,
                use: ['tslint-loader']
            },
            {
                test: /\.tsx?$/,
                use: ['ts-loader']
            },
            {
                test: /\.html$/,
                use: ['html-loader']
            }
        ]
    }
};