County will resolve U.F. road issues
Officials seek input on Sharon Station Rd. problems
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer
Monmouth County may have some solutions for the myriad traffic problems on Sharon Station Road in Upper Freehold.

Mayor Steve Alexander said that Sharon Station Road has been in bad shape for a while, and has been an ongoing issue for the township. He and Committeeman Stanley Moslowski Jr. spoke to Monmouth County earlier this year about diverting traffic off the road, but said that could not be done for legal reasons.

Monmouth County engineer Joseph Ettore presented a boulevard redesign for the road at the Dec. 18 Township Committee meeting.

Ettore said that in 1992, a transportation study was conducted for the Upper Freehold/Allentown regional area. The study was done by both municipalities, partnering with Monmouth and Mercer counties and neighboring Washington Township, which is now Robbinsville. Four developers with projects in the area also contributed to the study. They were K. Hovnanian, DKM Properties Corp., Trafalgar Homes Real Estate and Matrix Development Corp.

Ettore said the conclusion of the study was to alleviate the increased traffic due to development by creating necessary easterly and westerly road connections around Allentown. The first plan was to create an easterly bypass to direct traffic to a new interchange off I-195, but both the state and federal Department of Transportation said at that time that there was "no probability it would ever get built," according to Ettore. The second plan was to create the easterly bypass that is currently configured off Route 526 near Hope Fire Company in Allentown. The bypass opened in 2003 and directs traffic to Exit 8 of I-195.

Ettore said that prior to the 1992 study, Upper Freehold had contacted the county about taking over Sharon Station Road from the township. Sharon Station Road connects county routes 539, 526 and 524. He said the municipality has to bring roads up to certain standards, as far as design and width, when conveying them to the county. For every mile of municipal road the county takes over, the municipality must take a mile of county road in its jurisdiction. In this case, Upper Freehold would take back a short section of Davis Station Road and part of Burlington Path Road in exchange for conveying Sharon Station Road, he said.

The three bridges on Sharon Station Road are already the county's responsibility, he said.

"There was never enough money for Upper Freehold to bring the road to county standards, so it languished," Ettore said.D

ue to the increased traffic on Sharon Station Road, the county has decided to waive its policy for making the township bring the road up to county standards before conveying it, according to Ettore.

According to Ettore's presentation, morning peak traffic in 1999 caused 63 percent of vehicles to turn off Route 539 onto Sharon Station Road. The remaining 37 percent of traffic continued along Route 539. This study was done both before the opening of the easterly bypass and the correction of the severe bend of the road, Ettore noted. In a 2007 study, after the easterly bypass opened, 73.6 percent of traffic exited onto Sharon Station Road from Route 539 and 26.4 percent continued along Route 539. Of that, 2.3 percent was truck traffic.

If the county takes over Sharon Station Road, improvements would be made over the entire length, including the bridges, said Ettore.

"We need the Township Committee to agree that we take the road over, and we need input from residents," he said, adding that no decisions have been made.

Ettore said one plan includes a boulevard to separate north and southbound traffic that would allow for safe movement of traffic into the developments along the road. An 11-foot traffic lane, as opposed to the present 12-foot lane, would have a calming effect, he said. There would be a 4-foot shoulder on each side of the roadway as well as an additional 4 feet of grass pavers, he said. The bridges would be 40 feet wide, the same width as the road, he said. Ettore said there would also be a pulloff area for school buses.

Cindy Bowerly, a Dutchess Drive resident, said that trucks pass her all the time in the no-passing zone along Sharon Station

Road.

"You need to go 40 miles per hour to make a right turn into Dutchess Drive," she said.

Ettore said a deceleration lane would get people into their subdivision and a berm may be built for noise mitigation, he said.F

ormer Mayor William Miscoski said it is "high time the county government got off their a-- and took the road over. It's a dangerous road, and there will be a serious accident on the road."

He added that the boulevard should slow traffic down and make it a pleasinglooking road.

While several residents had questions about the proposed westerly bypass, Ettore said he was at the meeting to discuss Sharon Station Road.