County says need for road will be re-evaluated in 2016
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ALLENTOWN — County officials said they will wait until 2016 to evaluate whether there still is a need to build a westerly bypass, a project first proposed 20 years ago to route heavy traffic away from downtown Allentown where the narrow county roads date to the days of stagecoaches.
Residents who came to the June 26 Borough Council meeting to hear the county’s update on the Pete Sensi Park restoration plan also seized the opportunity to buttonhole freeholders on the status of the westerly bypass. Thirty minutes of the 1.5-hour public meeting was spent discussing the bypass that is supported by Allentown, but opposed in neighboring Upper Freehold where most of the road would be built.
Borough resident Julie Reid said traffic has “increased exponentially” in the 18 years she has lived on Yardville-Allentown Road as more housing developments are built in surrounding communities, and the dust gathers on a 1992 study that recommended the construction of the Allentown Regional Bypass.
”When those people moved into all those homes, and the parks were created by Upper Freehold, they knew that this was on the books,” Ms. Reid said.
Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore said the westerly bypass was only a proposal, and the county had made no commitment to a specific timetable for advancing the 1992 study’s recommendations.
”Just because a project is on a program doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to be built in a specific year or even that it will be built at all,” Mr. Ettore said.
The westerly bypass would connect Route 539/High Street (east of Allentown High School) to Route 524/Yardville-Allentown Road south of the borough. A connector road also was proposed to take the bypass north from Route 524 to Route 526 (near Circle Drive) in Robbinsville to provide easier access to Exit 7 of I-195.
Mr. Ettore pointed out the regional study was undertaken 20 years ago by three municipalities and two counties: Mercer County, Monmouth County, Washington Township (now Robbinsville), Upper Freehold and Allentown.
”The Board of Freeholders of Monmouth County — taking nothing away from Mercer County or the other municipal participants in the study — were the only ones who advanced the project,” Mr. Ettore said. “And because of the funding needs, they are advancing the improvements in stages.”
The first improvement made was the construction of the easterly bypass off Route 526 in Upper Freehold near the Hope Fire Company and Reed Park that directs traffic around the north end of Allentown to Exit 8 of I-195, he said.
The county now has moved into “phase two” by assuming jurisdiction of Sharon Station Road, which vehicles travel to get to the easterly bypass, Mr. Ettore said. Plans now are under way to make improvements to a 1.5-mile section of Sharon Station Road, including replacing three narrow bridges, beginning in 2014, he said.
”We are going to construct that (Sharon Station Road) plan and then evaluate the traffic as a result of the redistribution that will occur, then make the decision as to how to proceed with the westerly bypass,” Mr. Ettore said.
Pressed by residents who wanted a date for when that evaluation might occur, Mr. Ettore said the Sharon Station Road project would be done in 2016.
Ann Garrison, of High Street, asked Freeholder Director John Curley and Deputy Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone for advice on how Allentown could make its voice heard by the county when its residents aren’t as numerous or well-organized as its Upper Freehold neighbors who oppose the westerly bypass.
”We don’t know how to fight that,” Ms. Garrison said.
”Our citizens are not as computer savvy; they are not all retired with time to sit on the computer to write to their freeholders,” she said in an apparent reference to residents of Four Seasons, a 378-home adult community in Upper Freehold built in 2002 near the bypass site.
”We have a very serious problem in that it’s Allentown versus this particular development regarding the bypass,” Ms. Garrison said. “I want your advice on what is the best way to fight a situation like this . . . we’re really outgunned. Can you give us any advice because it’s ruining our town.”
What followed was 11 seconds of awkward silence. The only one who spoke was a resident of the Four Seasons sitting in the front row who could be heard quietly asking the person next to him, “I don’t understand; what’s ruining the town?”
Eventually, Freeholder Curley took a stab at a response, but sidestepped the question about how to out-lobby Upper Freehold. He assured Ms. Garrison “you do have representation in Freehold” but noted freeholders are responsible for more than 1,000 miles of highways and more than 1,000 bridges in 53 different towns.
The “purse strings are pulled in all different directions,” he said.
Freeholder Arnone took a more direct approach.
”To answer your question, ‘can we give you advice?’ — I think that is difficult,” Freeholder Arnone said. “One thing that we cannot do on the freeholders’ side is to get into discussions and somewhat battles between neighboring municipalities. Quite frankly, we represent Allentown, we represent Upper Freehold, we represent all the municipalities.”
This prompted Ms. Reid to return to the microphone to ask, “Is this truly a matter of economics or is it a dispute between two municipalities that can’t agree on a project? Is the bottom line really money or is the bottom line that there hasn’t been an agreement between the two municipalities?”
Mayor Stuart Fierstein interjected that the Monmouth County Planning Board has a scheduled a public hearing regarding revisions to the Draft Monmouth County Road Plan at 2 p.m. July 16 in Freehold, and borough residents could make their position on the westerly bypass known at that meeting.
Mayor Fierstein noted K. Hovnanian, the developer of the Four Seasons, deeded a parcel adjacent to the development to the county to construct the westerly bypass 10 years ago.
Mr. Ettore responded that while that was true, at least half the land needed for the project is located along Ellisdale Road, and that property is controlled by Upper Freehold Township.

