Sharon Station Road study results are in Of the 7,000 vehicular trips on the road per day, 785 are made by trucks BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer UPPER FREEHOLD - Sharon Station Road is the shortest and fastest route through the area for truck traffic, according to the township's engineer. Township Engineer Glenn Gerken provided the Township Committee with this and other findings from studying possible weight restrictions on Sharon Station Road and alternative routes for truck traffic. Residents of the Woods at Cream Ridge, Galloping Brook and Forge Mill Estates developments have complained to township officials about the heavy volume of truck traffic going past their communities. The trucks take Route 539 to Sharon Station Road, turn left onto Route 526 and use the easterly bypass to access Interstate 195 while avoiding a route through Allentown. At the Nov. 28 Township Committee meeting, Gerken said that his office has already proposed reducing the speed limit on Sharon Station Road by 10 mph, from 45 mph to 35 mph. The Township Committee passed an ordinance regarding the reduction and the state Department of Transportation has 60 days to review it. Gerken said that using passenger cars, his office performed a study in mid-November in order to determine the mileage and timing of various alternative routes. He cautioned that trucks would take longer than cars to accelerate and decelerate, and said that a 10-minute trip in a car could take 15 minutes in a truck. Also, Six Flags Great Adventure traffic was not taken into account for the study. According to Gerken, the Sharon Station Road route has an average of 7,000 vehicle trips per day, 89 percent of which consists of automobiles and slightly more than 11 percent of which is heavy trucks. He said there are approximately 785 truck trips on a daily basis, a number that includes all heavy vehicles such as school buses and two-axle dump trucks. Gerken explained that federal and state highways have the largest amount of vehicular traffic, with the next highest amount on county roads that move localized traffic to the interstates. While Route 539 and Route 526 and the easterly bypass are county-owned, the township owns Sharon Station Road, although for years the municipality has been asking the county to take it over. Gerken said the vehicles going east from the Route 537/539 intersection via Sharon Station to I-195 take 12 minutes to travel the 7.7 miles. An alternative route, from Route 539 to Route 545, then to Route 68 to Route 206 to the New Jersey Turnpike at Exit 7, measures 13.3 miles and takes 23 minutes, he said. Another alternative route, from Route 539 to Main Street in Allentown to Route 524, then to Route 130 to Route 206 to Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike, measures 16.2 miles and takes 23 minutes. However, the latter route runs past the school, and township officials have already said they would not consider such an alternative truck route. Once the bridge in Allentown is rebuilt - reconstruction that is scheduled to begin within the next two years - it will no longer have a weight restriction. Gerken said truckers could take Route 539 to Main Street and turn right, going through the borough to Exit 8 of I-195. Although this route would also pass the school, it takes 14 minutes and measures 8.7 miles, which is only one mile more than the Sharon Station Road route, he said. Gerken proposed another alternative for truck traffic, which would have trucks heading east on Route 537 to Exit 16 of I-195, and then to Exit 8. This route measures 14.2 miles and is 17 minutes long, he said. Gerken gave examples of a few other alternative routes, but they were considerably longer and also included a lot of traffic lights. He said that before the easterly bypass opened, trucks heading west would go from Route 539 to Main Street to Route 524 to Route 130, then to I-195 to Route 295. This route measured 14.8 miles and took 22 minutes, he said, which is one minute longer than the 21 minutes it takes trucks to travel Sharon Station Road going west from their destinations. For the study, several trucking companies were contacted. A spokesman for the Lee Ed trucking company told Gerken that truckers would use the shortest alternative route if Sharon Station Road were closed to truck traffic. "They said anything that added time would mean they can't make a round trip," Gerken said. Trucking companies also have fuel and toll concerns, since they pay higher tolls than passenger vehicles on toll roads, according to Gerken. Closing Sharon Station Road could also have repercussions for local business people, including farmers, according to Gerken. "If a [farmer's] truck were filled with beans, it would need to take an alternate route," he said. Gerken concluded that Sharon Station Road is still the shortest and fastest distance for truck traffic.