Truck limits aimed at reducing traffic

Ordinance slated for public hearing (Dec. 8)

By: Marisa Maldonado
   PLUMSTED — Placing restrictions on the weight of trucks on the township’s border with Jackson should limit traffic in the area — or at least that’s what officials hope a recently introduced ordinance will accomplish.
   If passed, the ordinance would ban trucks weighing more than 4 tons from driving down a two-and-a-half-mile stretch of Hawkin Road as well as eight residential streets near the road.
   The Township Committee will hold a public hearing on the ordinance at its Dec. 12 meeting.
   Residents in those neighborhoods had expressed concern about traffic in their neighborhoods, the mayor said.
   Concerns about the ability of a bridge near a nature preserve on Colliers Mill Road to support the weight of trucks and the safety of residents led Plumsted to consider new regulations, Committeeman Ken Francis said. Trucks often use neighboring residential streets to avoid driving past a station where they must pull over for emissions checks on Hawkin Road, he added.
   "The effect that checking station has is that it takes the big trucks off the main road and puts them on smaller residential roads that the roads aren’t suited for, and neither is the environment," Mr. Francis said.
   Plumsted officials have worked with neighboring Jackson, as Hawkin Road serves as a border between the two townships, for a year to enact the new regulations.
   Several exceptions would be made on the affected streets, which are Shedlock Road, Loveman Road, Malsbury Lane, Hopkins Road, Woodruff Road, Buckalew Lane, East Millstream Road and East Colliers Mills Road.
   Any truck making a pickup or delivery, such as garbage trucks that weigh more than 4 tons to pick up trash on those roads, would be permitted Mayor Dancer said. Emergency vehicles and those over 4 tons that belong to residents of the street also would be allowed under the ordinance.
   Members of the Neighborhood Preservation Program have requested a similar restriction on trucks that travel through Main Street, which is a county road.
   Accommodating this request would require permission from not only Ocean County but Monmouth and Burlington counties as well, Mayor Dancer said. Traffic from Main Street would be directed to Route 537 in Monmouth County and go down the road to Burlington County, he said.