About 50 residents crammed into council chambers on December 15 to get their first look at a conceptual layout of Route 571 as proposed by county officials, who say changes are necessary to make the road safer.
Layouts of the road depicted three lanes — one in each direction and a center turning lane — and sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides of the roadway from its intersection with Wallace and Cranbury roads, east to its intersection with Clarksville Road, where 154 car accidents occurred between 2005 and 2007 alone. The plan also proposes crosswalks and other pedestrian-friendly improvements.
Plans also depicted two lanes in each direction at the three major intersections on Route 571: Cranbury and Wallace roads, Alexander Road, and Clarksville Road — which would taper down to one lane after each intersection.
The information session was aimed at gathering public comments and suggestions for the plan, designed by the Louis Berger Group of Morristown, the consultant hired by the county to conceptualize its ideas. Residents talked with engineering staff from both the county and township as well as from Louis Berger before hearing a presentation on the plans.
John Kovar, the project manager with Louis Berger, explained that the county is currently in the process of getting environmental approval for the plan. Officially, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission paid for the consultant, but the county, which maintains jurisdiction over the road, is taking care of the design and will have to get state Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation approval. The concept plan has not been finalized.
“We expect full funding to come from the state and federal government,” said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh during the meeting. “This is only the beginning of the entire project.”
Kovar, who spoke with residents individually during the first hour of the night, explained that some had said they were relieved plans did not include four lanes on the road, while others asked why the extra lanes were omitted.
“This is really a safety improvement project,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of accidents on this stretch. The intent is to make it safer. The intent is not to increase capacity.”
The project will aim to correct deficiencies in the existing road. “There are a couple of horizontal curves along the roadway that are substandard that need to be corrected.”
The stretch of road under consideration currently has no defined shoulders, a shortcoming the project would fix by creating sidewalks and shoulders on both sides of the road.
As the area continues to develop, the intersections along the roadway will degrade, he explained, noting that traffic investigations already performed rated most of the intersections D on a scale of A to F, with F being the worst. Other work already performed as part of the project includes a field survey and full hazardous waste screening.
But the data collected to analyze the roadway’s safety was the most telling. The number of accidents — 154 — that have occurred along the corridor between 2005 and 2007 is 50 percent higher than the state average for similar roadways.
According to a chart displayed at the information session, the highest number of accidents, 24, occurred at the intersection of Cranbury and Wallace roads and Route 571. (See graphic on this page for the breakdown of accidents at each intersection during the 2005-2007 time period.)
“The crashes at some of the intersections are very high,” Kovar said. The project would also correct intersection alignments.
One issue that had to be addressed by county officials was the impact of road improvements on the Green Acres area that includes the Ronald R. Rogers Arboretum on Clarksville Road. The plan offers two alternatives to comply with state DEP regulations governing the Green Acres land.
The first alternative shows the improvements cutting into the residential land across from the arboretum, diagonal from High School South. It also shows some land on the high school side of Clarksville Road having to be cut. This option does not affect the Green Acres land.
The second alternative shows the intersection slightly jutting into the Green Acres land and a small portion of the corner of the high school property. The third alternative is doing nothing to the intersections.
The question is: “Do you impact Green Acres or do you impact some of the residents?” Kovar said.
“It makes more sense to have less impact on a residential area than on an open space and school area,” Greg Sandusky, the county engineer, said after the meeting.
The proposed middle turning lane was designed to “get people out of the main road and prevent some of the rear-end crashes.”
Residents questioned why the speed limit was not being reduced as part of the county’s plan for the roadway. Currently, the speed limit is 40, and some suggested lowering it to 25 or 30. “We are not reducing or increasing the speed limit, and we’re basing the design on that,” Kovar said.
Once the environmental review and approval is given for the plan, specifically with regard to the Green Acres, the county still would have to finalize the plan, obtain permits, and configure the final design before construction could begin. Kovar said there is no time line for the project.
Officials also have to find funding for the project, which does not yet have a cost estimate because the plans are not finalized.
