PRINCETON AREA: Transit forum touches on jughandles, plans

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   Regional Route 1 project updates and a report on the new Princeton-to-hospital bus service were given to members of the Central Jersey Transportation Forum this week.
   Several projects in West Windsor are in preliminary and final design stages, including a left turn prohibition at several major jughandles.
   The trial period for the turn prohibitions at Washington Road, Fisher Place and Harrison Street is scheduled to begin Monday, Aug. 6, with implementation the weekend before, said Mark Rollo, program manager of the New Jersey Department of Transportation division of project management. Signs warning motorists of the impending traffic pattern changes will go in place in mid-July.
   Traffic lights will be re-timed to accommodate new traffic movements, he said.
   ”We all owe the DOT a good test of the system and we have to see how the system works before we start figuring out how to go through neighboring municipalities and back streets,” said Marvin Reed, chair of the forum, who was elected to a second term this week.
   West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said Fisher Place movements will be restricted, with only right turns in and out and no left turns will be allowed.
   DOT Commissioner James Simpson, a Princeton resident, repeated his promise to pull the plug on left turn prohibition if it is a disaster after 30 days, but he said it must be allowed to take place for a while after school goes back to gage its full impact on the region.
   DOT has been taking traffic counts to gauge current conditions.
   The trial has put plans for improvements for County Road 571, Penns Neck, on hold.
   Improvements to Harrison have been completed and officials are almost finished with coordination of Opticom system to change the lights for emergency vehicle access to the new hospital at Plainsboro Road.
   Alternatives to a Vaughn Drive connector are being looked at and negotiated with West Windsor and New Jersey Transit.
   Other West Windsor Route 1 projects include a $7.6 million overpass from Nassau Park Boulevard to Quakerbridge Road. The work is scheduled to be awarded in fall 2014 and the Department of Transportation is in the process of executing a consultant agreement.
   Also by the mall, the DOT has purchased the right of way and is in the progress of moving utility poles so the mall can extend the acceleration lane so motorists can have safer access to Route 1 south.
   In Lawrence, the DOT is in the infant stages of working with federal agencies to make improvements to the Route 295 accesses to Route 1.
   At the Mercer Mall, driveways will be reconfigured in fall of 2014, are still in design stages.
   Further north in Plainsboro, the Schalks Crossing Road bridge needs to resolve issues with Amtrak and the $5.6 million project is in final design stages.
   In South Brunswick, the DOT is beginning right of way acquisitions to make improvements to drainage along Route 1 south in fall 2013.
   Various connections of Route 1 north of College Road to the NJ 91 Connector and New Road in South Brunswick are being improved with $16 million and are estimated to be completed by summer 2013.
   Ridge Road is in final design and looking to start fall 2013 and preparing to obtain the right of way.
   Route 130 will also have $15 million reconstruction and resurfacing improvements north and southbound from Westfield Avenue to Route 1 through East Windsor, Cranbury and South Brunswick.
   Jack Kanarek, chair of the forum’s Transit Action Team, spoke about action items of his group looking to build the success of the new number 655 bus line from Princeton to the new hospital in Plainsboro and identifying locations for modest capital improvements can be made to improve mass transit reliability.
   Tom Marchwinski praised the success of the new bus route, which has about 160 riders per day and is funded from several sources. Revenue from fares is estimated to cover 23 percent of operating costs. Princeton University and Princeton HealthCare have each committed to fund 9.1 percent of the total operating costs.
   About half of the trips on the route, dubbed the Healthline, meet the Dinky and the route will serve the proposed university arts district. It also connects with the number 600 and 606 routes.
   Pam Hersh, vice president for government and community affairs at Princeton HealthCare, said people have begun to respond to the bus.
   ”It’s been a fabulous experience and ridership is increasing,” she said.
   The biggest issue with the service is rush hour at the Scudders Mill Road overpass, which backs up and throws the schedule off.
   Lester Varga, planning director of Plainsboro Township, said the new bus service has worked seamlessly from day one and is a great example of working together.