Jurisdiction of Sharon Station Road still looms over traffic flow issues in UF
By: Cara Latham and Susan Robinson, Staff Writers
UPPER FREEHOLD The debate about how to control increasing traffic around Sharon Station Road, Route 539 and Route 526 has been going on for over a year, but progress may come this fall when Monmouth County officially expects to assume jurisdiction of the roadway.
In the past several years, traffic along Sharon Station Road has increased noticeably. Residents have cited concerns during township meetings about their children’s safety and demanded that trucks be banned from Sharon Station Road and other parts of the township, said Upper Freehold Mayor Stephen Fleischacker.
The township has taken steps to try to reduce the impact of traffic on the road, including attempts to reduce the speed limit and implementing a no-passing zone on the road.
But there have been roadblocks. The first is a lawsuit filed in January by residents living in the developments off that road. The suit challenges the transfer of jurisdiction to the county, alleging that the Township Committee passed a resolution authorizing the swap, instead of an ordinance, as required by state law.
Second is the state Department of Transportation, which township officials say has hindered the progress on reducing the speed limit on Sharon Station Road.
The no-passing zone and jurisdiction swap
The Township Committee attempted to curb traffic issues last September by establishing, with approval from the DOT, a no-passing zone that begins at Route 526 and extends south to Route 539 by way of Sharon Station Road. However, Mayor Fleischacker said the no-passing zone has had mixed success. Drivers who are less familiar with the 45- and 50-mph road presumably travel more carefully when they see the double yellow line, but that is probably not the case with drivers who typically commute the road, he said. Residents have said many area drivers continue to pass despite the no-passing zone, the mayor said.
The committee last year also approved two resolutions aimed at alleviating traffic on Sharon Station Road. One asked local truck companies to voluntarily redirect their trucks away from Sharon Station Road at certain times during the school year. The effect of this resolution has not been examined officially, however, and Mayor Fleischacker said he does not believe the residents on Sharon Station Road have observed a decrease in truck traffic.
The other resolution postponed transferring jurisdiction of Sharon Station Road from Upper Freehold to Monmouth County. However, with no reasonable alternatives, the Township Committee voted by resolution to reinstate the transfer on Dec. 7, 2006.
The road has been earmarked to fall under jurisdiction of the county since 1996 as part of the county’s Master Plan.
Following the latter resolution, the lawsuit regarding that transfer was filed in Monmouth County Superior Court by SSR CARS, Inc., which identifies itself as a public nonprofit group. According to the group’s Web site, http://cars-uft.com, the group name stands for Citizens Advocating Road Safety.
In a letter directed to township residents on the site, the group states the transfer of jurisdiction "will surrender any right of Upper Freehold Township to impose, regulate and enforce any safety proposals, such as weight restrictions, speed limits and the like on Sharon Station Road."
Calls to Stephen J. Edelstein, of Florham Park, the group’s attorney, were not returned by press time Tuesday.
According to the lawsuit, state law demands that a tract of land, with or without improvements, owned by the municipality "may, by ordinance, authorize a private sale and conveyance of the property, or any part thereof, to the county in which it is located, without compliance with any other law governing disposal of lands by municipalities."
Township Attorney Granville Magee also said last week he wouldn’t comment on pending litigation. A pre-trial hearing on the matter is scheduled for Sept. 28.
What county jurisdiction means
The county has not released details on its future plans for Sharon Station Road. According to Mayor Fleischacker, county officials have stated that once Monmouth County obtains jurisdiction it will widen the road, reconstruct the road base, build proper storm drainage and design a boulevard with a tree-lined median.
Township Engineer Glenn Gerken said the county is better equipped to handle the "dollar and cents" the roadway will need. The roadway is narrow for the volume of regional traffic and if the county chose to widen it, he said the job would cost $2 to $3 million. Since the county would have jurisdiction, it would be responsible for paying for it, not the taxpayers of Upper Freehold, Mr. Gerken said.
He also said it most likely would be quicker for the county to fix the roadway. The county has jurisdiction of three bridges on Sharon Station Road and paperwork is already in progress for their upgrading. Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore said that the entire road would be improved at the same time the bridges are worked on.
Mr. Gerken explained this transfer as a "swap of maintenance (in which) the county would take over Sharon Station Road from 539 to 526 and the township would take over Burlington Path from 539 to Meirs Road and a very small portion of Davis Station Road from 539 eastward for about 300 feet."
To make this swap happen, Mr. Gerken said both township and county each must review information and prepare an agreement. As of now, Mr. Ettore said, the county is in the process of ensuring that the paperwork is complete for the transfer. He said he expects the transfer to occur by fall.
"For every one mile of local roadway, which the municipality requests the county to take over, the county asks the municipality to assume jurisdiction of an equivalent length of county road which no longer serves a regional purpose," Mr. Ettore said. The objective, he said, is to have no net change in total road miles to either county or municipal roadway system.
The engineer’s office will be working with the municipality in the fall, once they are able to develop concept plans for what the road and bridges will look like and take them to the governing body for their review and comment, prior to starting final design plans, he said.
Speed limit
Mr. Gerken’s traffic study on Sharon Station Road also recommends that the current speed limit on the road, which now varies between 45- to 50- miles per hour in different sections, be lowered to 35 miles per hour, but progress on that issue has been stalled by the state DOT. Township officials say they followed requirements by passing an ordinance to lower the speed on the road, and sending it to the DOT.
The issue came up again during the July 19 Township Committee meeting, after a resident asked about progress on the matter.
Township Administrator Barbara Bascom explained the DOT had 90 days to review the speed reduction on Sharon Station Road and respond, and if it didn’t, the township could have gone ahead with the speed limit reduction. But representatives from the DOT told the township the paperwork got separated when the township sent it to the commissioner, rather than to the person who handles investigations into speed limit reductions, she said.
The DOT then conducted its own study on the road, and said that because 85 percent or more of people traveling on the road drove at much higher speeds than 35 miles per hour, it would not permit the speed limit reduction, Ms. Bascom said. Township Committee members said they disagreed with the DOT’s process in making the decision.
"So, we gave it to the right agency, we did the right thing, and they in turn said, ‘We screwed up,’ and, on top of that, they didn’t respond in the 90 days," Committeeman Steve Alexander said. "We are paying for the sins of the DOT because we can’t lower the speed limit, even though we did everything appropriately."
Further, "there has to come a point where the 85th percentile is dangerously over the speed limit," he added. "What’s to stop us from doing it?"
However, Erin Phallon, DOT spokeswoman said Tuesday the DOT received the request from the township on March 29, and that it responded by May 31.
"However, DOT surveyed the area and tested speeds of vehicles traveling in the area and found that traffic traveled at 57 miles per hour at the 85th percentile and therefore, we denied the change," she said.
Mayor Fleischacker said the committee was going to seek the advice of its attorneys to see what its options are.

