BY RONNIE GARDSTEIN
Correspondent
The N.J. Department of Transportation invited the public to a Sept. 29 open house at the Shrewsbury Municipal Building to present its findings on state highway Route 35, its traffic flow and intersections, and on pedestrian and bicycle safety. The DOT also solicited input on possible solutions to the deficiencies it documented.
The lively meeting, attended by approximately 80 outspoken borough officials, residents and business owners, also focused on the impact of possible intersection improvements on the Shrewsbury Historic District and on environmental conditions in the area.
According to DOT project engineer David Brucoleri, who headed the group of agency employees and consultants who hosted the open house, the agency invited representatives of Shrewsbury Township, Tinton Falls, Red Bank and the Monmouth County Planning Board to give input on the project as well.
DOT offered four aerial photographs, a digital presentation, and talks by two engineers about the agency’s Route 35 corridor Eatontown/ Shrewsbury intersection improvements projects. One photograph was marked to address existing operating conditions and another highlighted areas of bicycle and pedestrian facility deficiencies.
Brucoleri and consultant Beth DeAngelo, of Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas Inc., explained that Route 35 intersections including Avenue at the Commons, Sycamore Avenue and White Road have traffic delays and higher than desired accident rates, which will continue to worsen over the next 25 years.
Brucoleri repeatedly advised the skeptical community members that the state DOT came to show the public what its studies had uncovered, and to get public input and feedback.
“We don’t live around here, we don’t know what concerns the community,” he admitted.
The steps in the design process are concept development, feasibility assessment, identification of an initially preferred alternative, preliminary design and final design.
Actual work would not begin for at least four or five years, and then would be subject to funding availability. Currently, no funding is available and there is a queue for projects. However, “quick fixes” necessary to abate hazardous conditions or to facilitate better traffic flow such as retiming traffic signals or adding speed limit signage could move ahead without delay, according to Brucoleri.
The agency’s review of the routes 35 and 36 interchange, and the Route 35 and Tinton Avenue intersection in Eatontown, prompted an examination of the surrounding intersections including those along the Route 35 corridor in Shrewsbury. The review identified intersection deficiencies as well as historic and environmental constraints on improvements.
“We will not be digging up cemeteries or taking down 200-year-old trees,” Brucoleri assured the crowd.
DOT data suggests that as development and traffic increases over the next 20-25 years, intersection crash rates at Shrewsbury Avenue, Sycamore Avenue and White Road will be higher than acceptable.
During informal talks with attendees of the open house that followed the presentation, representatives of DOT and project consultants promised that residents’ fears of a road-widening plan designed to allow more traffic to move along Route 35 were unfounded.
Mayor Emilia Siciliano arrived at the meeting armed with an easel and poster that laid out her vision for Broad Street modifications that would reduce the existing four traffic lanes to two lanes separated by a tree-planted median and bounded by bicycle paths and improved sidewalks. She explained that she envisions a tree-planted traffic circle at the Sycamore Avenue intersection that would slow down traffic to a speed more suitable for the densely populated area. She favors improved sidewalks that accommodate environmental factors such as storm water runoff that could cause water and ice hazards for pedestrians.
As the mayor describes the borough’s past relationship with the DOT as quite rocky, she was wary of the meeting format, including its lack of a record of the public comments and questions. Prepared for the DOT to dictate what was to transpire, at the meeting’s end she said she felt encouraged.
During the discussions of the DOT presentation, diverting northbound traffic heading to Interchange 109 on the Garden State Parkway or west on Route 520 to Shrewsbury Avenue was a recurring theme raised by both borough officials and residents. DOT acknowledged that it was currently conducting traffic counts on Shrewsbury Avenue, a county road.
Residents expressed complaints about the current traffic situation in the borough and fears that DOT would change it.
“It’s a great town. People like to walk and ride their bicycles. You’re going to take all that away from us,” worried one resident. The dangers to children on foot and on bicycles were also discussed.
Several residents pointed out that the Route 35 roadway was already close to many structures and that any widening would be impossible without disturbing them. Brucoleri stated that DOT was not in a mode to take properties through eminent domain.
DOT sought volunteers for a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) of 15 to 20 people representative of sectors of the community to assist in the process of developing concepts and alternatives and establishing an Initially Preferred Plan.
“Before we know what the solutions are, we need to know what the problems are. It’s not like the old days of NJDOT widening roads to speed up traffic,” Brucoleri said.
Mikulak echoed Brucoleri’s assertions that the agency had no predetermined plans for Shrewsbury.
“You get the community and elected officials involved, and you come up with something that has a good basis. It’s sound,” he said.
Addressing the concerns expressed by the community, Mikulak noted, “Everybody thinks it’s about road widening. It’s about intersections.”
Sue Murphy, a local Realtor who lives on Shadowbrook Road, candidly told the DOT, “We are all scared.”
She expressed fear of the traffic dangers and concern for property values. Residents applauded her and later encouraged her to serve on the CAC.
“We are skeptical of NJDOT’s commitment to consider the views of the community. We don’t know how to use the roads. Is the center lane for emergency vehicles or for turning?” she wondered.
Recently completed improvement of the Branch Avenue intersection with Sycamore Avenue in Little Silver has led to more traffic using Sycamore Avenue to reach the Garden State Parkway, according to Siciliano.
At the Oct. 4 Borough Council meeting, a small group of residents made comments and offered to serve on the CAC.
Council president Terel Cooperhouse advised that he would prefer that Shrewsbury rather than the DOT pick the residents and business owners to serve on the CAC. He promised that there will be future well-publicized public meetings at which the community can keep abreast of progress on the project. He urged anyone interested in serving on the committee to contact the Borough Council.