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Grant Will Help Slow Down Traffic On maryland Avenue, Eastern Boulevard
By Jo ann la Russo
The state Department of Transportation is awarding $285,000 to Berkeley Township in a 2008 Municipal Aid Grant for roadwork improvements in the Sylvan Lakes section of town, announced Councilman Carmen Amato on Thursday.
The Sylvan Lakes section of Berkeley is in Ward 2, which Councilman Amato represents.
"These much needed funds will specifically go toward roadway improvements along Pleasant Drive and several intersecting streets," said the councilman.
Department of Transportation Municipal Aid Grants provide funding to municipalities that would otherwise devote local tax revenue to fund street improvement, rehabilitation and safety projects.
This year, 372 New Jersey towns were awarded a total of $78.75 million in transportation grants. According to the state, municipal governments maintain over 25,000 miles, or approximately 70 percent, of New Jersey's 36,000 miles of roadway. NJDOT will provide 75 percent of the grant amount when it awards a contract and the remaining 25 percent upon completion of the project.
Councilman Amato said the state funds are sorely needed for roadwork in the township.
"It's a win-win for Berkeley in obtaining this grant. We can now move forward in providing desperately needed roadwork improvements to a section of town that's over 40 years old at no cost to our taxpayers," Amato said.
Berkeley's Maryland Avenue, which has been called one of the most dangerous roads in the township, will have chokers installed at three intersections, McKinley and Coolidge avenues and Eastern Boulevard. The traffic-calming devices narrow the roadway slightly to force traffic to slow down.
The township planned the work following residents' complaints of speeders along the roadway. Those residents of Maryland Avenue in the Pinewald section of the township hope that the plans to install chokers at the three intersections of the road will slow those speeding cars.
Berkeley Township engineer Chris Theodos showed the proposed design for the chokers and received mixed re- from residents, some whom were hoping that a distinct high-cut curbing would solve the problem. Officials said that chokers have worked successfully in other towns and would not take away any of the street size.
Theodos said last week that bids are being sorted through for the work.
Maryland Avenue residents say that speeders are a big problem on their residential street and that they are glad the problem is going to be addressed.
They are hoping that the chokers will at least slow traffic down on the narrow 25 mph street.
"Frank," who resides at 315 Maryland Avenue, said that the speeders come down the 25 foot wide st reet "at a quickening pace" and that he and his neighbors welcome the township's help on the project.
"Somebody had to do something to help us out," he said as he raked up leaves on his lawn. Sewers are also presently being installed in the area where septic tanks, such as the one on his property, will be closed over.
Several dozen Maryland Avenue residents who came to town hall last month listened to police, township engineers and the mayor describe plans to install the chokers. The Police Department's traffic safety unit cited numerous instances where tickets were issued for speeding, about 56, and the unit also reported one minor hit-and-run accident involving a parked car. So far this year, 22 speeding tickets have been issued, with three minor accidents reported.
Residents who live along both of the roads asked about the possibility of putting up cameras to catch speed limit violators and stop sign violators, but officials said that that plan is not feasible at the present time.
When the governing body approved a resolution to go out to bid to install the chokers at the three intersections along Maryland Avenue, Tony Poklasny, a project manager for township engineers CMX Associates, estimated a cost of about about $150,000 to install the Maryland Avenue chokers, as well as striping, signs, raised crosswalks, drainage and paving.
Township officials are also studying the Harbor Inn Road area for installation of chokers following residents' complaints about speeders on that roadway, forcing bicyclists and walkers into the street.
Residents who live on the corner of Worth and Harbor Inn roads recently asked the township to install speed humps to slow traffic down in the area, but officials said it wasn't allowed because the road is considered an emergency route.
Mayor Varano said the township would send letters to Harbor Inn Road residents to let them know just how the township intended to slow traffic down on their road.
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