Rt. 34-Lloyd Rd. bottleneck
ABERDEEN — Township officials looking for the state to improve the Route 34 and Lloyd Road intersection may soon have their way. Representatives of the state Department of Transportation presented a concept plan on improving the intersection and heard resident and Township Council input at an April 15 meeting.
"This problem is a problem that is not going to go away," Township Manager Mark Coren said. "It is going to get worse if nothing is done."
The council has been trying to make changes to Route 34 and some of its intersections for the past 20 years, he said.
The DOT project would take from five to seven years to complete, but Aberdeen may ask the state to finish the project in three years, Coren said.
"We know that this project is long overdue," Township Engineer David Samuel said. "It should have happened over 20 years ago."
All four sides of the intersection each have one left turn only lane and one lane to travel straight and turn right. Both sides of Lloyd Road have left turn signals, but Route 34 does not.
Orth-Rodgers Associates, Somerset, was hired to study the intersection. The study began last spring and focused on the needs and deficiencies of the intersection, said Joseph Fiocco, a project engineer.
The total cost of the project is estimated at about $2 million, Fiocco said.
Data collected included the number of motorists in the area, number of accidents and average time spent in gridlock, he said.
Data was also collected from surrounding intersections, Fiocco said. Goals include identifying future and current congestion patterns.
The intersection’s peak hours were on weekdays between 8-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m., he said.
To improve the Route 34-Lloyd Road intersection, an extra lane could be added to each intersection side and a turn signal could be added on Route 34, Fiocco said. A recommendation to add two lanes to Route 34 and one to Lloyd Road with or without turn signals added was also made.
Changing the intersection would improve traffic on other township streets because less people would cut through the smaller roads to avoid problems at Route 34 and Lloyd Road, Fiocco said.
The state will gather public opinion on the proposed improvements and look for a municipal resolution, he said, adding that "The No. 1 goal was to get (public) consensus, the No. 2 goal was to get the council’s endorsement for the project."
The presentation only mentioned improvements to traffic flow, Mayor David Sobel said.
"I have not heard anything about the reduction of traffic," he said.
Sobel suggested building parking lots in towns such as Marlboro to encourage commuters to use the Aberdeen-Matawan train station.
— Josh Davidson