Motorists stuck in gridlock on West Park Avenue in Ocean Township may get some relief as the county is finalizing plans for changes to the corridor aimed at improving safety and reducing congestion. At a public information meeting on Oct. 28, Ronald Lotrecchio, project engineer, discussed changes planned to West Park Avenue, which runs through Ocean Township, Eatontown and Tinton Falls.
“In general the recommendation to the county for the roadway would be to maintain a 12-foot-wide travel lane, a 12-foot-wide center turn lane in locations that are appropriate for a center turn lane, and a five-footwide shoulder,” Lotrecchio said.
“In addition, we looked at a recommendation to provide a continuous sidewalk throughout the project.”
The study area includes the entire stretch of West Park Avenue between Monmouth Road and Hope Road in Ocean Township, as well as the Hope and Shafto roads intersection in Eatontown and the Armstrong Boulevard and Route 35 intersection in Ocean.
Some of the recommendations include aligning the left-hand-turn lanes opposite each other on the intersection of West Park, Green Grove Road and Hope Road and adding a right turn only lane on West Park onto Poplar Road. The recommendations also include leftturn only lanes at Whalepond Road and various crosswalk and pedestrian safety improvements throughout the study area.
Lotrecchio said the main focus is the intersection of West Park Avenue and Route 35.
“That seems to be the major bottleneck on certain times of the day for this corridor,” he said. “We have two different options for this intersection.”
A proposed change would extend West Park from two lanes to four lanes and add left-turn-only lanes. However, Lotrecchio said the recommendation would require rightof way acquisition.
“We do achieve a much improved level of service with this alignment,” he said. “We did look at the less dramatic going from two lanes to three lanes but we feel the impact of going to this four-lane option is beneficial.”
Lotrecchio said the county likely wouldn’t complete the recommendations submitted in the study in one phase.
“This will be a master plan where as funds are available they will go ahead and advance this project in sections,” he said. “Any determination as to what is a priority has yet to be determined.”
Lotrecchio said the study would likely be completed and submitted to the county by the end of the year.
Written comments can be sent to engineer@ co.monmouth.nj.us until Nov. 30.