BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer
SHREWSBURY TOWNSHIP — For years, Mayor Emilia Siciliano has been thinking about ways to improve the flow of traffic on the portion of Broad Street/Route 35 that passes through the township.
With the state and residents studying traffic control measures along the artery, Siciliano recently offered her own solution: reduce the highway to one lane in each direction between the Avenue of the Commons and White Road, with a center lane for turning into businesses.
“That really is where our residential area begins, by the county library,” she said.
In fact, Siciliano has a vision for Broad Street that cynics have said can’t be done.
She would like to see that portion of Route 35 in Shrewsbury become more like a boulevard with islands of trees in the center and a traffic calming circle at the intersection of Broad Street and Sycamore Avenue.
She also wants the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to classify that intersection, known as the historic Four Corners district, as Shrewsbury’s downtown.
This week, the DOT announced the cancellation of a second meeting on Route 35 traffic issues.
Instead, the meeting of the Community Advisory Team (CAT) that is working on developing a traffic plan will be held sometime in July.
CAT is a collaboration between the Shrewsbury Community Advisory Committee (CAC), the DOT and other state and county agencies that have an interest in the traffic flow at Broad Street/Route 35 intersections.
The Route 35 Intersection Improvement Project meeting would have been the second meeting of the team since Jan. 27, when it met at the Shrewsbury Presbyterian Church to discuss purposes and goals. Those include: to recommend roadway improvements, plan locations for new sidewalks, improve access to business destinations, identify appropriate locations for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, incorporate design features to increase safety for all transportation modes, and maintain regional mobility without deteriorating the quality of life for residents.
According to an e-mail sent to members of the team from the CAT facilitator,
the purpose of the second meeting will be to develop concepts to address the community interests and transportation deficiencies in the corridor.
Siciliano explained that the corridor extends from the jughandle for Shrewsbury Avenue on the northbound side of Route 35 to the intersection at Newman Springs Road/Route 520 and Route 35/Broad Street.
The list of criteria for the meeting includes travel time reduction, traffic calming, reduced congestion and truck reduction/elimination. Also included on the list are pedestrian safety issues like walkability, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, bicycle compatibility.
In addition, there are other issues to be considered, like preservation of historic elements, environmental features and corridor aesthetics.
Siciliano said she believes that some of the congestion at the Newman Springs Road and Broad Street intersection can be relieved by redirecting westbound traffic to the Shrewsbury Avenue jughandle to the south.
There are actually two problems that need to be addressed, she said.
One of the problems is that the signs instructing northbound motorists who want to go west to the parkway or to Brookdale Community College in Lincroft are located right at the jughandle, making it difficult for people to get into the proper lane in time to make the jughandle to go west.
“I’ve been asking that signs at the intersection of Newman Springs Road and Broad Street be moved to the Shrewsbury Avenue jughandle. That would relieve the congestion at Newman Springs Road,” she said.
The other problem that needs to be addressed, she said, is increased traffic on Shrewsbury Avenue.
Siciliano said there was a CAT meeting in Freehold with the Monmouth County Planning Board on May 31.
“The DOT felt it was necessary to discuss the rerouting of traffic,” she said, adding that officials from Shrewsbury, Red Bank and Tinton Falls were invited. They were inclined to agree with Shrewsbury about moving the westbound signs from Newman Springs Road to Shrewsbury Avenue, she said.
Siciliano explained that the DOT would have to conduct a traffic count to see if Shrewsbury Avenue would have to be expanded. She added that the borough already has traffic counts for the intersections at Patterson and Sycamore avenues.
According to Siciliano, almost 100 percent of the residents present at the first DOT meeting wanted to see less congestion on Broad Street.
“The DOT said at one time that they wanted to put in a bicycle path, but you need 4 feet on each side and we don’t have that, and they can’t broaden the road because of the historic district and the cemeteries close to the road,” she said, adding, “Broad Street doesn’t comply with the new DOT standards because it is an old, old street. The sidewalks are very narrow. They date back to 1926.”