The intersection at Sunset Avenue and Memorial Drive in Asbury Park will become a three-way stop under a plan to reroute buses down Asbury Avenue instead of Fourth Avenue.
Asbury Park officials and residents have been asking New Jersey Transit to use Asbury Avenue as the bus detour route for the Sunset Avenue Bridge project rather than Fourth Avenue, which runs entirely through residential neighborhoods.
Acting-Police Chief Anthony Salerno said that an additional stop sign will be added at the southwest corner of the intersection so that buses do not have to stop on the railroad tracks while making the left-hand turn to head toward Asbury Avenue.
Right now cars have a clear shot across Memorial Drive and buses could have to stop on the railroad tracks before making the left hand turn. The new stop sign allows them to make the turn unimpeded since the oncoming traffic will have to stop.
The intersection will also be appropriately marked and painted to help make motorists more aware of the new stop sign.
“This is a win for the city and gets the buses off of Fourth Avenue. It makes this new bus route work,” Salerno said.
The additional stop sign will be temporary and removed once the bridge replacement project is finished.
The Sunset Avenue Bridge, which crosses Deal Lake between the Wanamassa section of Ocean Township and Asbury Park, closed at the end of January and will remain closed for an estimated 454 days under a $9 million to $10 million state Department of Transportation funded project to replace the bridge.
The projected date for the bridge to reopen is May 27, 2016
Salerno also suggested that metered parking on Heck Street, between Cookman and Lake Avenues be removed because the street is too narrow to accommodate it while still allowing two-way traffic.
“It is just too narrow and the spaces should be taken out,” he said.
Mayor John Moor said city workers will paint over the numbered parking spaces as soon as possible.
