Millstone's most dangerous roadways
Twp. tries to improve high-crash areas and dangerous intersections
BY JANE MEGGITT & JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writers
Although rural Millstone Township may not have the police muscle necessary to stop all who carelessly drive its long and winding country routes, it is trying other methods of making hazardous roadway and intersection conditions safer.

JENNIFER KOHLHEPP The portion of Baird Road in front of the new Millstone Township Middle School has continued to deteriorate since the school's opening in September. Millstone officials await the county to repair a bridge on the road before starting permanent repairs.

Mayor Nancy Grbelja said at the Township Committee's Oct. 17 meeting that any road in Millstone could be considered dangerous.

"People speed beyond belief," she said. Grbelja said the township has a number of dangerous intersections, including the one at Stillhouse Road and County Route 524, which has been the scene of many accidents. She said recent changes have been made to the intersection that include the placement of signs warning drivers of a stop ahead.

Deputy Mayor Bob Kinsey said the town has done everything it can to clean up the intersection, which has had "high-profile" crashes, including a June accident that claimed the life of a passenger in Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith's sport utility vehicle (SUV). Smith allegedly ran his vehicle through the stop sign and collided with another car in the intersection.

Kinsey reported that Department of Public Works (DPW) supervisor Kenn Gann recently went to Marlboro Township to borrow mats for line striping township roads. The DPW also recently put up more "Cross Traffic Does Not Stop" signs at certain intersections, according to Kinsey.

Township Engineer Matt Shafai said he will meet with Monmouth County officials to discuss the five-road intersection at Scooters Corner in the Clarksburg section of town. Shafai noted that some motorists do not know what to do where Paint Island Spring, Stagecoach and Millstone roads intersect.

Kinsey said there is potential for a reconfiguration of Scooters Corner at Millstone Road (Route 571).

Shafai also reported that improvements to Millstone Road from Baird Road to Route 33 continue, with the drainage work done and half the paving complete. The rest of the improvements to the road should be finished in two weeks, he said.

The township has also submitted a grant application to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for work on Baird Road from Millstone Road to Stillhouse Road, according to Shafai, but has not yet been notified on whether the grant has been approved.

Repairs to the stretch of Baird Road from Stillhouse Road to Woodville Road will commence once the county makes repairs to its bridge on Baird Road near the new middle school, according to Shafai.

The section of Baird Road in front of the new middle school has deteriorated since use of the road intensified when the new school opened in September. When asked when the township will improve this section of Baird Road, Shafai said, "It depends when the county gets done."

Shafai said the county has plans to bid the bridge project out early next year. He estimated that the township would be able to start repairing the roadway in front of the school in 2008 or early 2009. In the meantime, if the road further deteriorates, Shafai said, "We'll patch it if we have to patch it."

Shafai also said that in the spring the county should replace the four-way stop sign at the Sweetmans Lane/Woodville Road intersection with a traffic signal.

Municipal clerk Maria Dellasala said the improvement of the Sweetmans Lane/Woodville Road intersection had been part of the township Planning Board's approval for the county's Charleston Springs Golf Course. She noted that there are a lot of accidents at the intersection.

Overall, the township's 2007 road improvement program is 25-40 percent complete, Shafai said, with the remainder expected to be done by the end of the year.

Pat Butch, who owns Bright Meadows Farm on Prodelin Way, said she would like the speed limit on Prodelin Way lowered from 50 mph to 35 mph.

Butch told the committee that another accident on her road last week downed a telephone pole and left smoking wires in the trees. According to Butch, drivers speed "like crazy" on the road and regularly cause damage to poles and transformers. She said the road was repaved two years ago but that two sections have already been damaged by car accidents involving fires.

Butch Shafai said Prodelin Way is a narrow road with ditches on both sides. Butch said there is a problem with drivers hitting the curve in the road at 50 mph and not being able to negotiate it.

"If it's snowing or raining out, forget it," she said. "[Vehicles] are always in the ditch."

Grbelja reported on another road project that will affect the area. She said she recently met with Hightstown Mayor Robert Patten about upcoming changes to the New Jersey Turnpike at Exit 8 and Exit 8A. She said that the redesign at Exit 8 in Hightstown would bring motorists off the turnpike and directly on to Route 133 instead of on to Route 33. There are also plans for a realignment of Milford Road so that it would no longer connect to Route 33 where it meets with Route 133. A new road called Timber Run Creek would be created, she said.

Grbelja said Patten asked her and Roosevelt Mayor Elsbeth "Beth" Battel for support for his borough's claim that the DOT's reconfiguration of Exit 8 would cause problems for municipalities in the area.

Committeeman Elias Abilheira commented that the town should support its neighbors in standing up against the state unless the action could harm Millstone.

"You may want their support on something else," he said.