County to take the driver’s seat

Township votes to surrender jurisdiction of Sharon Station Road

By: Cara Latham
   UPPER FREEHOLD — The Township Committee voted last week to transfer jurisdiction of Sharon Station Road to Monmouth County, a move officials here hope will lead to an overhaul to what they see as a dangerous thoroughfare.
   Committeeman Sal Diecidue said the county and the Township Committee had already agreed to take jurisdiction but the township owed the county necessary paperwork to complete the transfer.
   When Mr. Diecidue heard that there had been concerns over truck traffic on the road, he discussed it with other Township Committee members, who then passed a resolution in September to slow the process down to give them time to find alternatives to the traffic problem before handing over jurisdiction, he said.
   "We already gave them the OK," he said. "We just stopped it because we were waiting for other alternatives, so we basically just reinstituted (on Dec. 7) the fact that we’re authorizing the county to take it."
   Truck traffic on Sharon Station Road has been a hot issue for residents, who have complained that it endangers children, especially when they are waiting for the school bus.
   Sharon Station Road has been proposed to fall under jurisdiction of the county since 1996 as part of the county’s Master Plan.
   Because the root of the problems comes from the narrowness of the road, it would be better if the jurisdiction was transferred to the county, said Mr. Diecidue.
   "The county can make the road safer," he said. "One of the problems is it’s to narrow now that trucks and cars tend to sway into the middle of the road. The road needs to be rebuilt from the dirt up. It’s a major, major project."
   Mr. Diecidue later added that the improvements would be made using county money, as the road would now fall under county jurisdiction.
   "The county for all these years, which has to be over 15, was not going to take jurisdiction of the road until the road was rebuilt by the township," he said. "Unfortunately, the township was never able to do that with the finances, and it’s always been a regional connector road, which means it’s not a lot of residents using it. It’s mostly people going through the town."
   However, "the quantity of vehicles was one of the reasons we forwarded it to the county," he said. "They could rebuild that road a lot faster than we could. The goal is to make it safe."
   The average number of vehicles traveling on the road is 7,000 per day, said Mr. Diecidue.
   "The (state) Department of Transportation calls a road that has 7,500 vehicles on average a major connector," he said. "The definition of a major connector is one less than a highway. A residential road has 1,500 vehicles, a minor connector has 3,500 vehicles, and a major connector has 7,500, so we’re very close to being a major connector."

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   Mr. Diecidue said that with the resolution to complete the jurisdiction transfer, the Township Committee listed all of the improvements that the township has made on the road, to show residents that officials did all they could before transferring the road to the county.
   Those improvements include getting contractors to reduce the berm for sight distances on the road, because drivers "couldn’t see when they come out of the side of the roads," Mr. Diecidue said. Shrubs along the road were also cut back to improve sight. The Township Committee voted to reduce the speed limit to 35 mph, down from the former limits of 45 or 50 mph, which Mr. Diecidue said he believes is still pending approval from the commissioner of the state Department of Transportation. Township officials approached the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education to have signs placed on the road which warn drivers that there are school bus stops ahead.
   In September, the Township Committee asked local truck companies to voluntarily redirect their trucks away from the road from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on weekdays during the school year. The committee also established the no-passing zone beginning at Route 526 and extending south to Route 539, pending approval from the commissioner of the DOT.
   Sharon Station Road connects Route 526 to Route 539, which then connects to Route 537. The road itself has three bridges that are under county jurisdiction.
   Another concern that complicates the problem is that once the bridge on Main Street in Allentown is reconstructed and reopened, more truck traffic would flow past the schools on Route 539.
   Township resident Patrick Nolan, of Dutchess Drive, submitted an outline in September of possible solutions to the truck traffic issue, which included rescinding the resolution to swap jurisdiction of the road to the county and establish restrictions of truck traffic between Route 526 and Herbert Road.
   Mr. Diecidue said township officials looked at the suggestions, but "the flaw was there was no global solution once the bridge gets opened," he said. "Unfortunately, it puts the trucks in front of the school again, and trucks in front of the school where all the kids go was unacceptable."
   He also said that he has spoken with county officials, who indicated they would look into reducing the speed limit and are "going to try to maintain it … down to 40 miles per hour."
   Other options include placing a median in the middle of the road so that cars and trucks could not pass each other, and creating a bike lane, Mr. Diecidue said.
   "At this time, they (the county) have been very receptive," to suggestions from township officials, said Mr. Diecidue, adding that when the county reconstructs the bridges on Sharon Station Road, they will also reconstruct the road at the same time. Township officials said the county wants to start working on the bridges some time next year, he said.

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   Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore said that the county is aware that the Township Committee took action and passed a resolution, and he is just waiting to receive a copy of the resolution and the necessary paperwork to complete the transfer. The county already has jurisdiction solely over the bridges, but once the jurisdiction is complete, it will have authority on the road as well.
   "Once we assume jurisdiction, we would expand the improvements to not only include the reconstruction of the bridges, but also the roadway from the intersection of Sharon Station Road at (Route) 539 to the south, up to the intersection of Sharon Station Road at (Route) 526 to the north," he said.
   When asked if there were any specific measure the county was looking to implement to improve safety on the roadway, Mr. Ettore said that "we certainly know that traffic calming has been a concern, and the county shares that concern, and we’ll design the improvements appropriately, so that we can come up with something that is both safe and efficient."
   Mr. Ettore added that county officials want to meet with Upper Freehold Township officials to discuss various options.
   A timeline for the construction is predicated on how quickly the county finalizes the takeover agreement, as well as how quickly it is able to obtain the permits necessary to replace the three bridges on the road, which the county already has been working on for three years, he said.
   "Depending on what we ultimately decide to build, it may affect the permits that have already been applied for, so that it would further delay the project," he said. "But we hope that we can start the project within the next 12 months."
   The road and bridge construction should take a total of 12 months, he added.
   "The fact is the road will be made safer sooner," he said. "For years, they’ve been trying to get the county to take the road without the township rebuilding it; without the cost. It just makes sense to have the county do it with our input on design."