By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR Residents showed their concern by filling the council chambers for two hours Monday morning to discuss the state Department of Transportation’s concept to improve traffic on Route 1.
With the DOT’s failed attempt to eliminate the jughandles at Washington Road and Harrison Street still fresh in their minds, citizens, particularly those from Penns Neck, reacted unfavorably to the DOT’s latest proposal.
The concept affects a stretch of roadway from the New Jersey Transit Dinky’s overpass to the Millstone River. It calls for a fourth lane in each direction and two additional jughandles.
Larger jughandles would be at Sarnoff Drive and the Eden Institute property, which is about midway between Washington and Harrison. The other new jughandle would be at Washington Road, at the site of a former Exxon Station.
Northbound motorists would no longer be able to make a U-turn at Washington Road or at Harrison Street.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said the DOT is projecting a $35 to $40 million budget for the concept, with the utility alignment regarding the PSE&G substation taking up a third of the costs by itself.
According to town officials, Princeton University has agreed to demolish the Eden Institute and donate the property for the concept.
Despite the projected benefits, images of illegal U-turns and traffic congestion from the East and West sides made the majority of attendees give the concept a thumbs down. To them, the new plan and additional traffic light would only create the same, if not worse, nightmares.
”Ten accidents happened during the pilot four literally happened in my front yard,” said Eric Payne of Penns Neck. “Adding a light is not going to help the situation we need to get together and tell the DOT to do this right.”
Mr. Payne is a member of the grassroots group Smart Traffic Solutions, which was a big influence in bringing the previous DOT experiment to an early end.
Resident James Moeller couldn’t understand why the DOT was focusing on this part of Route 1 and only willing to fund up to $40 million for the cause.
”They’re throwing too little money at it to get a decent result,” said Mr. Moeller. “Either do it right or forget it until the state has enough money to do it.”
Paula McGuire of Washington Road agreed, questioning why maintaining their quality of life wasn’t worth the extra money.
”You’re changing lives here aren’t we worth it?” she asked.
Mayor Hsueh said the DOT had previously offered around $178 million for improvements a couple years ago. However, the projects never panned out and that money was dispersed to other townships and communities.
”That amount of money will never come again in this lifetime,” said Mayor Hsueh. “It’s a state highway and I’m not in a position to speak how much money will be available.”
As the discussion tapered off, Mayor Hsueh deemed it necessary to maintain a cooperative relationship with the DOT to set the stage for long-term Route 1 improvements that would be more in West Windsor’s favor. Many residents agreed with him in that whatever plan is approved, it should be done in phases beginning with making it able to enter Princeton via Harrison Road and eventually establish a Vaughn Drive connector.
”We need to agree to some improvements and I want you to stick together and work with me to make it happen,” said Mayor Hsueh.
Town professionals gathered all the written comments from the morning’s forum and plan on consolidating them and presenting all the concerns and recommendations to the DOT.

