Improvements en route for West Windsor roads

Fifteen of the township’s most dangerous intersections soon will see safety improvements, officials say.

By: Emily Craighead
   WEST WINDSOR — Fifteen of the township’s most dangerous intersections soon will see safety improvements, township engineer Jim Parvesse told the Township Council on Monday.
   "A lot of these are not expensive improvements," Mr. Parvesse said. "They are things we can accomplish very quickly."
   Township engineers and traffic consultants compiled a list of accidents from 2001 to 2003 and weighted them according to whether they resulted in property damage, injury or a fatality. Data for 2004 were incomplete when the information was compiled and were not included in the report.
   With nine of the most dangerous intersections along Alexander Road, Mr. Parvesse said the township will look carefully at timing street signals.
   "There really is a need to coordinate all the signals," he said. "You could be forced to stop multiple times between Route 1 and North Post Road."
   The first goal is to identify short-term improvements the township can make, and then to advise the county of other areas where improvements can be made, Mr. Parvesse said. The township controls all the intersections on the list.
   Some improvements that the township expects will reduce accidents have already been implemented. They include reducing the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour along Alexander Road between Wallace Road and Route 571, painting new crosswalks and adding signs alerting drivers of pedestrian crossings.
   Other trouble spots will require more extensive work, such as the Alexander Road "S" curve west of Canal Pointe Boulevard and east of the Delaware & Raritan Canal.
   "At Alexander Road at the S curve, a lot of accidents happen during wet periods," Mr. Parvesse said. A likely solution will be re-paving that section of road with a less slippery surface.
   He said plans for the new Alexander Road bridge over the Northeast Corridor rail line will address problems at the Alexander Road’s intersections with North Post and Wallace roads.
   Making improvements at all of the problem intersections will require an amendment to the 2005 capital budget. Mr. Parvesse said he will not know how much the improvements would cost until a more detailed plan is complete.
   Also at the meeting, the township engineer updated council members on interim improvements to Route 571.
   During the next few weeks, Mercer County crews are expected to make minor road repairs, re-stripe the road, paint crosswalks and add pedestrian signals.
   The township will be responsible for constructing a sidewalk between Sherbrooke Drive and Alexander Road, as well as improving lighting between Cranbury Road and Clarksville Road.
   "With all these improvements, I think this will help pedestrian and vehicular safety until we put in more permanent improvements," Mr. Parvesse said.
   Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh told council members many of the projects presented Monday have yet to be refined.
   "This is a general overview of the projects so far," Mayor Hsueh said. "There still will be a lot of things to work on."
   In other action Monday, the council voted unanimously to introduce a $29 million municipal budget for 2005 with a tax-rate increase of 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. The 2005 budget as proposed would carry a tax rate of 59 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. If the council grants final approved, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $239,000 would pay $1,410 in property taxes for municipal purposes, $72 more than last year.
   A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for May 16.
   The 15 most dangerous intersections, ranked by number and type of accidents from 2001 through 2003, are:
   1. Alexander Road and Canal Pointe Boulevard.
   2. Alexander Road east of the Delaware & Raritan Canal at the S-curve.
   3. Alexander Road and North Post Road.
   4. Village Road and South Lane.
   5. Canal Pointe Boulevard and Carnegie Center Boulevard.
   6. Alexander Road and Harris Road.
   7. New Village Road and Baxter Place.
   8. Alexander Road and Roszel Road.
   9. Alexander Road at Vaughn Drive.
   10. Alexander Road and Scott Avenue.
   11. Alexander Road at Wallace Road.
   12. Canal Pointe Boulevard and Meadow Road.
   13. Alexander Road at Campus Drive.
   14. Meadow Road and Old Meadow Road.
   15. Wallace Road at Wallace Circle.