JACKSON – Traffic, road work maintenance and development issues were a big part of a recent Township Council meeting that included a report by the township engineer.
Council Vice President Mordechai Burnstein noted a letter that the township received from the Ocean County Engineering Department that concerned the township’s request to add a traffic light in the vicinity of Rova Farms, a preserved property that is being developed for recreation.
The letter states that a member of the engineering staff will be evaluating the situation. Burnstein noted this was “long overdue. Hopefully, this year we will start to see something different (at Rova Farms) over what has been there in the past.”
He also noted a resolution about Pitney Lane that had seen traffic increase “sixfold since 2018. It is a tremendous danger in the neighborhood that is going on over there and in many parts of our town. We appreciate when residents reach out and stay on top of things and try and pressure us to keep the ball rolling.”
Burnstein gave special thanks “to our engineer Charles Cunliffe. He has been on top of Bethal Church Road, Bartley Road and some of the other roadways.” He noted that reports from T&M Associates, a firm hired by the township, will soon be sent to the county and used in relation to improvement work on roads owned by the county.
Cunliffe was later questioned by the council about some of the resolutions that applied to his department that were on that night’s agenda.
Council President Jennifer Kuhn asked about the situation at Pitney Lane noting that two resolutions called for striping and for calming devices on that township road.
The engineer responded, “one of the resolutions is to approve capital improvements for Pitney Lane and the other is to approve professional services. Pitney Lane has been on Police Traffic Safety Unit’s and engineer’s radar since 2018 with a lot of traffic and congestion issues going on around South Cooks Bridge. A lot of the traffic is from using it as a cut through. The average traffic volume in 2018 for it was between 300-315. As of 2022 that skyrocketed to 1,800 trips a day.”
Cunliffe added that the police department had done some supplemental counts last year in one direction that showed it to be 1,400 trips a day. “That is around 2,800 trips a day. They do a speed study to see how fast vehicles are traveling through there. The percentile speed has been increasing through the corridor. The 85th percentile speed was 39 miles per hour.”
“Roughly, 15% of those 1,800 or 2,800 trips a day is traveling at 39 miles per hour or higher,” Cunliffe said. The road’s speed limit is 25 miles per hour. “These numbers could increase considerably.” This was attributed to a restructuring of the school district and recently approved development plans.
Parking to one side of the roadway may be in consideration according to Cunliffe. Other suggestions are “installing 25 mph pavement striping, 25 mph regulatory signage throughout the corridor, radar enforcement signage underneath that just to let the public know there is enforcement presence there,” he added.
He also noted future curb work and parking restrictions at intersections in that area. “There were two alternate bids. Bid A included speed radar signs. Those are the ones that display the speed…to let you know if you are traveling a high level of speed. Those can be effective in the short term but they still rely on an enforcement presence. Police can’t be everywhere at once.”
Cunliffe added, “Alternate Bid B included speed tables. Speed tables are the common term for speed humps. Our recommendation based on the prices that came in was to award the base bid which was the baseline striping and signage improvements and then alternate bid B which was the speed tables.”
The engineer was questioned about the time frame of the work which he said should be completed prior to the start of the new school year in September.
During the meeting Kuhn noted that she had been in contact with the county engineer concerning the new Wawa. “I’ve seen a lot of the complaints. I understand that it is a problematic area. They were going to close off Leesville Road. They are no longer doing that. They are looking to reroute what they are doing on Cedar Swamp but they will be reevaluating the new Wawa.”
