Tarantolo wants work completed in time for 2007 Breeder’s Cup
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
EATONTOWN — Come October 2007, when thousands of spectators pass through the routes 35 and 36 interchange en route to the Breeder’s Cup at Oceanport’s Monmouth Park, Mayor Gerald Tarantolo would like them to view landscaping and plantings as they experience a smooth ride through a much-improved crossing.
However, with the state Department of Transportation (DOT) holding off on the long-awaited construction to the heavily traveled intersection until the summer of 2007, just a few months before the internationally famous competition, Tarantolo is worried that those thousands of spectators might instead be greeted by tractors, backhoes and cranes, combined with delays upon the torn-up roadways.
Though Tarantolo is pleased that the DOT has set a start time for the estimated $12 million project, which calls for widening the two state highways within the borough’s confines to the north, south, east and west over the course of two years, he is concerned and disappointed that the state has not synchronized its timetable with the borough.
“I was not happy with that,” Tarantolo said last week after learning of the DOT’s plans during a meeting with the agency’s project engineer Mahesh Patel. “We would have lots of construction that would take place concurrent with the Breeder’s Cup.”
Having heard from event organizers that about 20,000 to 30,000 spectators from throughout the world could descend upon Eatontown, Oceanport, the host community to Monmouth Park, and other nearby communities as a result of the internationally televised race, Tarantolo had urged DOT to complete the roadwork well in anticipation of the two-week-long event.
In short, the mayor envisioned that DOT would create a “corridor” extending along Route 36 from Exit 105 of the Garden State Parkway through the borough and West Long Branch to the racetrack.
But Tarantolo, still hoping to persuade the DOT to advance the Route 35/36 project closer to the top of its priority list, explained the situation to Patel last week.
“I expressed concern and disappointment about the date, and asked them to move it up,” he said.
The mayor is also writing to DOT Commissioner Jack Lettiere in hopes of convincing him to start and finish the project two years earlier than its expected completion date of fall 2009.
Both Tarantolo and Borough Administrator Michael Trotta are scheduled to meet with Monmouth Park officials in early September to discuss the intersection improvements and other logistical matters related to traffic flow during the Breeder’s Cup.
The DOT plan calls for the eastbound lanes of Route 36 to be widened to three lanes from where that highway meets Wyckoff Road to its intersection with Route 71 in West Long Branch, Tarantolo said.
Meanwhile, Route 35 approaching the Route 36 interchange from the north and from the south will be widened to four lanes just prior to the intersection of the two highways, the DOT plans show.
The jughandle leading from Route 36 west to Route 35 south near the Office Max Plaza and the Ethan Allen furniture store will be lengthen once the DOT obtains rights of way from the owners of those properties, Tarantolo said.
In addition, the turn-off lanes leading from Route 36 east to Route 35 north will be extended as well, he added.
The DOT has estimated the cost of acquiring right of ways at $3.5 million on top of the $12 million figure for the entire construction project, Tarantolo said.
In the meantime, the borough has been negotiating with the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders to close off Wall Street, a county road, before it meets Route 36.
“The county will turn over that section of Wall Street [to control of the borough],” he said.
Instead, Wall Street would terminate in a T-formation at a new, unnamed road to be constructed by DOT in conjunction with the project, Tarantolo explained.
The new road, leading out to Route 35 northbound on one end and toward the Pathmark shopping center at the other, will be routed between an existing cemetery and the Fortunoff store, he said.
As part of the entire project, South Street, a borough thoroughfare, will empty into the parking lots of two shopping centers under the DOT plans.
Merchants in that plaza have told the mayor and council that they like the new configuration although they might have to give up a number of parking spots to accommodate the DOT construction.

