BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer
BRICK — The problem of traffic congestion on Route 70 drove straight into the municipal building last week.
The township’s traffic engineer, Mark Kataryniak of Birdsall Engineering, gave a multi-media presentation to the Township Council at its public meeting Feb. 22, focusing on the four intersections along Route 70 that comprise Brick’s “missing mile.”
“This is a culmination of an ongoing effort,” Kataryniak said of the presentation.
On large video screens, aerial photos of the state highway and its side roads — Brick Boulevard, Chambers Bridge Road, Cedar Bridge Road and Duquesne Boulevard — were shown with moving cars. The computer program that was used allowed Kataryniak to show how traffic moves on the roads during weekday evenings, or the peak hours. The technology also allowed him to show what improvements could be made to the intersections and how traffic would flow once the improvements are made.
Kataryniak said that the left turn onto Brick Boulevard is “by far” the worst area along the missing mile. He also pointed out how bad the situation is at the Chambers Bridge southbound and Route 70 westbound approach to that intersection.
“What really drives it home is, you start to see how this backs up,” Kataryniak said, pointing to the screen.
At Cedar Bridge Avenue, the traffic congestion occurs more on the Cedar Bridge legs than on Route 70. He said the backup on Duquesne Boulevard is also worse than on Route 70. He explained that because Route 70 is a state road, state statute requires that traffic should move faster on state roads than on the side streets.
Studying this particular area of Route 70 is something Kataryniak said he has been working on for several years. A task force was formed a few years ago, and since then the township has looked for creative ways to solve the traffic problems, he said.
“We’re looking to expedite a 10-year plan now — tomorrow, if we could,” the township traffic engineer said.
While the township has completed some interim improvements, Kataryniak said, small improvements won’t help the overall traffic congestion now.
“We’re beyond timing improvements,” he said, referring to the timing of the traffic lights. “We’ve tried different tweaks of the lights.”
Kataryniak said they’ve looked at widening the roadways, jughandle improvements and bypass options.
“What we’ve done is, we’ve tried to think outside the box a little bit,” he said.
And the proposals they’ve come up with include widening the highway to three traffic lanes in each direction. Also, extending the left-hand turn lane onto Brick Boulevard and getting rid of the jughandle at that intersection would help matters. Kataryniak said there are approximately 1,750 left-hand turns at that intersection during peak hours.
At Chambers Bridge Road, there isn’t any room for jughandles, but double left-hand turn lanes could be implemented. At Cedar Bridge Road, double left-hand turn lanes from Cedar Bridge Avenue onto Route 70 would also help. However, the county has plans for a jughandle at that intersection as well, the traffic engineer said.
He has also looked at a bypass road that would take traffic from Route 70 near Forge Pond, by the golf course, and come out on Chambers Bridge Road near the senior housing complex. Then the traffic could connect to Cedar Bridge Avenue by using and extending the road near the post office. Kataryniak said this option mostly helps right-hand turns onto Chambers Bridge, so it might be best to just put in a right-hand-turn-only lane at the Route 70/Chambers Bridge intersection.
Kataryniak said the crux of the issue is that the project of improving the missing mile will concern money, property acquisition and environmental impacts.
“This is a regional traffic situation,” he said. “We want to create long-term improvements that you can live with.”
Council members had the opportunity to ask Kataryniak questions after his presentation. Councilman Stephen Acropolis said he wanted to know when Kataryniak had last met with the county about this issue. Kataryniak said he met with county officials about a month ago.
“Ocean County has been very cooperative over the years,” Kataryniak said.
“If it were as easy as widening pavement, I think the county would have volunteered to do it a long, long time ago,” he said.
Acropolis said he also wanted to know how close the township is to seeing the improvements implemented. Kataryniak said it depends on who takes the lead on the project. Interim projects are achievable now and could be done faster by the township or the county than anything the state would do. Kataryniak pointed to the county’s jughandle proposal for Cedar Bridge as the improvement that will be seen the soonest. He said adding left-hand turn lanes from Cedar Bridge onto Route 70 could be done at the same time.
Kataryniak said he has had to change some perceptions at the state level. He produced the model that the council viewed Feb. 22 so the county and state officials could understand what the township is dealing with.
“What we try to do is advance their understanding,” Township Business Administrator Scott MacFadden said.
“It really comes down to money,” Mayor Joseph Scarpelli said.
“I think we have full cooperation,” Kataryniak said. “I think funding is the issue.”