Elberon resident says state DOT notice is misleading
I attended a meeting sponsored by the N.J. Department of Transportation at Long Branch City Hall Sept. 23 regarding the proposal for a new bridge to replace the current bridge on Park Avenue, which crosses over the railroad tracks just north of Elberon station.
My residence is located at 1032 Woodgate Ave. on the northwest corner of Park and Woodgate, within the proposed project zone. At this meeting I met NJDOT’s community relations manager and a representative of the engineering firm retained by NJDOT.
Unfortunately, most of the residents directly affected by this project did not attend NJDOT’s public meeting because they were unaware of the enormous impact this proposal will have on their properties, their homes and their lives. Their non-attendance was largely due, it seems, to the evasive and deceptive nature of the notification letter NJDOT sent to adjacent property owners. The letter downplayed or failed to mention key impacts, both potential and actual, and simply referred to the roadway “improvements” as a “flattening” to improve sight distance.
This was widely interpreted to mean the bridge was being lowered to match the roadway on either side, when, of course, this is not the case. So no one bothered to attend the meeting. NJDOT’s notification letter should have been more honest, and its text should have included the full details on the proposed changes to the bridge and the adjacent roads.
The proposed project involves raising the Park Avenue bridge and substantially elevating the grade of Park Avenue and the south end of Woodgate Avenue. If this design were adopted, it would necessitate disturbing and regrading (raising) the borders of several residential properties — including my own — and removing a thick line of mature hedges and trees that provide privacy to both my front and side yards. It would also entail the removal of a border fence which encloses my yard and protects my pets.
Several other properties will be heavily disturbed as well, with potentially severe impacts on quality-of-life issues including noise, visual pollution, unanticipated traffic patterns, construction of pedestrian structures crossing private property, and the very real potential of severe flooding in local residential basements.
The entire project means a lengthy and unnecessary disruption for our Elberon neighborhood. It will almost definitely lower the real estate value of the nearby homes because of the aesthetic, noise and visual pollution problems it will create.
I am opposed, as are many of my neighbors, to the current project design. Other alternatives need to be considered, including some which may temporarily inconvenience the railroad but which would be better in both the short- and long-term for our neighborhood.
We hope the city will study this situation closely and ask NJDOT to sponsor a comprehensive public hearing with full disclosure at which residents can query NJDOT officials with our own expert engineers and architects and with city officials.
Janice Hirschorn is a resident of the Elberon section of Long Branch
Janice Hirschorn
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