to make Ridge Road safer
Police seek other ways
to make Ridge Road safer
By charles w. kim
Staff Writer
SOUTH BRUNSWICK — The township will hold off on designating a formal truck route, for now.
A formal truck route resolution and an ordinance to lower the speed limit on Ridge Road to 25 mph were discussed by the Township Council Tuesday night.
While the speed limit ordinance will move forward, the planned announcement of a formal truck route will wait until improvements are made to the Route 1 and Route 522 intersection.
Deputy Mayor Frank Gambatese and Councilman Ted Van Hessen asked the council to place a formal truck route on the agenda last week so it could be approved by the state Department of Transportation and then enforced by police as soon as possible.
South Brunswick police Sgt. Mike Kushwara said that a truck route based on the recent circulation master plan would send trucks down Route 522 to cross the township.
However, improvements to the jughandle at the intersection of Route 522 and Route 1 would need to be completed first to allow trucks traveling south on Route 1 to turn east onto 522.
The township has been involved in litigation for years regarding the land that is needed for that improvement. The litigation was finally settled earlier this year.
Gambatese said that the improvements should be completed by the spring and then the route could be designated.
Van Hessen disagreed.
"I don’t believe anyone is gullible enough to believe that a major intersection project like Route 1 and Route 522 can be completed by March," Van Hessen said Wednesday.
Van Hessen suggested that an alternate truck route be plotted until the project is complete.
"Delaying something beyond a reasonable time is ignoring what the community needs," Van Hessen said.
The formal route, once adopted and posted, would designate a path through the town that trucks not making local deliveries would have to follow.
Trucks using roads such as Ridge Road as a shortcut could be ticketed by police.
Residents along Ridge Road have been asking for the route as well as improvements for that road, as well as a reduction in the speed limit, to make the area safer.
An informal truck route was developed by the town’s industrial commission in 1999, but it only involves roads near the New Jersey Turnpike interchange.
That "recommended" route has been handed out to truckers at Interchange 8A on the Turnpike.
In addition to barring trucks and lowering the speed limit, the township is also moving forward with reconstructing the sidewalks and roads in the area.
That project, which is estimated to cost about $1 million, will replace almost two miles of sidewalk and make the road width consistent along the length of the road, according to Township Engineer Jay Cornell.
Cornell said that the project, which is now entering the design phase, will "address many of the residents’ concerns."
The township currently has some $267,000 to start the first phase of the plan.
State Sen. Peter Inverso (D-14) obtained $250,000 for the project last year, and Johnson was able to obtain about $68,000 for the project in the form of a downtown area grant.