MANALAPAN – Municipal officials have asked engineers from Monmouth County and the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to evaluate an intersection that some Manalapan residents assert is having a negative effect on their quality of life.
And if the engineers determine a traffic signal should be constructed at the intersection of Wickatunk and Tennent roads over Route 9 at the Gordons Corner Road overpass, the Township Committee has committed to sharing the cost of the new traffic signal with the DOT.
On Sept. 27, committee members passed a resolution which states that the DOT advised Manalapan “of the municipal requirement including a commitment to share in costs associated with providing solutions to enable new traffic regulations to be established and enforced.”
The resolution goes on to state that once a traffic study is completed “and if a traffic signal is warranted, the township will commit to pay 25 percent of the costs associated with that traffic signal.”
Manalapan’s elected officials have agreed to that stipulation.
In August, the committee passed a resolution requesting the DOT and Monmouth County to conduct a traffic evaluation and study of the intersection of Wickatunk and Tennent roads over Route 9 at the Gordons Corner Road overpass.
The resolution states that the DOT “renovated the Gordons Corner Road bridge over Route 9 and at that time advised the township that (the DOT) would not be performing any additional intersection improvements now or in the future.”
Officials said they are asking again for an evaluation and study of the intersection of Wickatunk and Tennent roads in order to determine what improvements are necessary at the location.
The resolution was passed several weeks after residents of Wickatunk Road spoke during a committee meeting and stated their objections to an application that is currently before the Manalapan Zoning Board of Adjustment.
In that application, Next Generation TS LLC is seeking a use variance to construct a medical office building in a residential zone on property where Wickatunk and Tennent roads intersect.
Residents are objecting to a commercial use on residential property and have told the zoning board they believe a traffic situation that is untenable at certain times of the day will be made worse by a building that houses medical offices.
Testimony offered to the zoning board by the applicant has indicated a driver’s wait to travel through the intersection can reach 400 seconds (6 minutes, 40 seconds) at certain times of the day.
The presence of the medical office building could result in a wait time of 500 seconds (8 minutes, 20 seconds) at certain times of the day, according to a traffic expert who testified on behalf of the applicant.