Traffic Lights, Road Improvements in Works in Tinton Falls
By ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
As condos sprout on the former Laurino farm in Tinton Falls this spring, road improvements and traffic lights are cropping up around it.
If you drive by the former farm on Sycamore and Hance avenues, now dubbed Greenbriar Falls age-restricted community, youll see rows of budding condos rather than strawberries and corn.
Traffic is also in full bloom; and both pending and completed new development in the area has been a catalyst for more.
To quell any potential jams and enhance safety, some promised improvements are now in the works.
In addition to the development at the former farm site, the corner of Apple and Hance Roads, down the street, has become home to the Red Bank Veterinary Hospital.
Before its construction a couple of years ago, the developer of the hospital had pledged to contribute $100,000 toward the cost of a new traffic light at the congested corner of the county roads.
They have delivered on their promise. As a result of years worth of promises and planning between the borough, the county and the developer, the traffic light is on its way to being installed.
Borough Administrator W. Bryan Dempsey announced recently that the light should be up and running by the early summer June or July.
And on the other end of Greenbriar Falls, steps are being taken to improve roads and add another traffic light to break the ever-increasing flow of traffic and safety hazards at and around the intersection of Hance and Sycamore Avenues because of that traffic.
I get calls just about every day from residents complaining about how unsafe that intersection is, said Mayor Peter Maclearie.
There have been more and more accidents there, too.
The light is something former officials have wanted at the intersection for years. But, as former Mayor Ann McNamara had said, the county would not sanction it, because there was another traffic light at Hope Road and Sycamore Avenue and the location would be too close.
County officials had told McNamara that once development plans for the farm had been approved, the prospects for the light would be reconsidered.
Now, while there is a safety urgency, residents have voiced major concerns over the road improvements that the county officials have said must come with the light.
Traffic studies were done by the county and county officials presented a proposal for the road improvements and light to residents about a year ago, Maclearie said. It was a pretty raucous meeting, because a lot of people were upset that the plan included taking some property in the area to widen the road. The road widening was proposed to accommodate the added traffic to and from the new age-restricted community at the Laurino farm. The Laurino family contributed toward those improvements, just like with the light by the veterinary hospital. Those sorts of contributions tend to help push the county projects along quicker.
When theres some money there toward the projects, then the county can proceed without having to worry about where the money is going to come from in its budget to cover the complete cost of such projects.
Since the contentious meeting on the subject, Maclearie said that the county was supposed to come back with an alternate set of plans.
In the meantime, Sycamore Avenue resident Peter Karavites expressed the urgent need for the light, while condemning the countys idea of taking properties to widen roads and widening roads at all.
The area, he said, cannot accommodate four lanes of traffic. It would defeat the safety purpose of the light, he added.
In other road business, in the southern section of town, improvements to Essex Road were announced last week. After fielding many complaints about the road, on which the senior development of Seabrook Village sits, Dempsey said the borough had committed $500,000 to the roads long-awaited improvements.
Those improvements will be undertaken as a result of a joint effort by the state, the county, the borough and the developer of the pending outlet mall near the road, Maclearie said. Were getting there. Some major, long-awaited improvements are coming to fruition now.
Read more about your town by picking up The Coaster at your local newsstand or subscribe today.
Published every Thursday.
