By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — Taking the next step toward the repaving of Canal Pointe Boulevard, Township Council unanimously approved a $3.9 million bond ordinance that includes $500,000 for the project Monday night.
Township Council also approved three amended bond ordinances, allowing it to allocate unspent money from those previously approved bond ordinances toward the Canal Pointe Boulevard repaving project.
Several residents — many of whom live in the Canal Pointe and Princeton Greens subdivisions, off Canal Pointe Boulevard — urged Township Council to approve the bond ordinances so the repaving project can get under way.
It is “very important to get the road straightened out,” said Ted Strempeck, who lives in the Canal Pointe development. The road is full of potholes and motorists must swerve to avoid them, he said.
Thomas Calabria, who also lives in the Canal Pointe development, said residents in this part of the township sometimes feel like they have been forgotten. He also urged the council to pass the ordinances, noting that “I drive (Canal Pointe Boulevard) every day and my teeth get rattled” from the potholes.
Mr. Calabria and Dan Fabrizio, who lives in the Princeton Greens development, also said they and other residents would like to have some input before the final striping design of the repaved Canal Pointe Boulevard is determined.
Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh announced in April that Canal Point Boulevard would be re-striped from the present four lanes — two in each direction — to one lane in each direction, plus a center lane for left turns. It would also include bicycle lanes.
Township Council awarded a $58,859 contract to Van Cleef Engineering Associates to perform the survey work and plans for the repaving of Canal Pointe Boulevard as three lanes with bicycle lanes.
After the survey work has been completed and detailed engineering plans have been developed, the project will go out to bid.
The decision to implement the “road diet” — reducing the number of lanes in order to “calm” or slow down traffic — is Mayor Hsueh’s to make under West Windsor Township’s form of municipal government. The administration — Mayor Hsueh — can propose an action, but it is up to Township Council to fund it.
The mayor based his decision to go ahead with the road diet as the result of several studies conducted over the years — beginning with a grant-funded New Jersey Department of Transportation study in 2004.
The latest study, conducted in 2015 by the Burns Group, recommended one 10-foot-wide lane in each direction, a 12-foot-wide middle lane for left turns, and a 6-foot-wide bicycle lane on each side.
The goal of the study, which was originally conducted in 2008, was to evaluate the existing and future conditions on Canal Pointe Boulevard — between Alexander Road and Meadow Road — and to determine if any modifications to the roadway should be recommended to better serve all users.
