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Exit 91 To Receive Sweeping Changes, Become Four-Way Interchange
By Bill McLaughlin
Like the weather, people are always complaining about traffic in and around Brick - and no one ever does anything about it. Until now.
A $28 million redesign of the area surrounding Exit 91 of the Garden State Parkway, in the works for more than two decades, is beginning to ramp up, so to speak.
The Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders will vote September 5 on a $3.1 million bond to authorize Phase I of the project, the final design. The county will be repaid for all design costs.
The construction project is almost entirely funded by federal and New Jersey Turnpike Authority dollars, the board announced.
Construction is expected to begin by 2011. When completed, the area will look slightly different. The interchange will be a complete cloverleaf with parkway entrance and exit access in both directions. There is only a northerly entrance and southerly exit now.
A north-bound entrance from Burnt Tavern Road will provide access to the Park-and-Ride lot on the east side of the roadway. A second north-bound ramp for east-bound Burnt Tavern Road traffic will funnel Burrsville Road traffic on to the GSP. The present ramp for travelers heading north will be eliminated.
A north-bound exit ramp will link Burrsville Road and the parkway. A south-bound exit ramp will allow drivers to use the existing exit or continue along to a new ramp linking Lanes Mill Road.
There will be a new south-bound entrance ramp for drivers heading west on Burnt Tavern Road that will link up with the parkway. Also, Lanes Mill Road will link up with the GSP south-bound when Herborn Avenue is extended to Lanes Mill at a signaled intersection.
After hearing the changes explained by county director of engineering Frank Scarantino, Freeholder Joseph Vicari shook his head.
"As one who has used those roads for 34 years, this is much appreciated," Vicari told the board. "I don't think you can ever completely solve a problem like this, but this will be a major improvement."
The redesign is expected to ease congestion at the commuter parking lots during rush hour travel times and take some of the pressure off heavily-traveled roads paralleling and intersecting the GSP.
"Not only will this almost totally new interchange ease traffic on nearby Lanes Mills and Burnt Tavern roads, it will also reduce congestion at nearby Exit 90 at Chambers Bridge Road," said Kelly.
He explained that many motorists now have to double back from Exit 90 to access roads leading to Point Pleasant and northern Brick.
Thirty years ago, when the area was still largely a summer resort, the traffic crunch was a seasonal curse. Today, on bad days it can take close to an hour to get from one end of Brick to another on local roads.
Recent upgrades to interchanges in Stafford, Lakewood and Waretown, plus a new interchange in Berkeley and a proposed cloverleaf upgrade in Barnegat, are part of a new spirit of cooperation with the Turnpike Authority, which oversees the Garden State Parkway.
County To Buy Buffer
Lands Around Naval Base
Also on the agenda for the next meeting, which is 4 p.m. Wednesday at the county Administration Building, 101 Hooper Avenue in Toms River, are resolutions accepting Natural Lands Trust advisory committee sanctions of two land purchases. The freeholders will formally vote on the land purchases September 5.
The county will buy 10.9 acres for about $525,000 and five additional acres for $100,000. Both the Sarama Homes and Paglia tracts are on Route 571 in Jackson on land through which a stream of the Toms River flows.
"Three homes could have been built there," said Freeholder John Bartlett of the larger tract, adding that both homesteads are also in the buffer zone planned by the county to surround Naval Station Lakehurst.
Bartlett also announced that the U.S. Navy has a financial interest in keeping the base free from nearby development and can help in the land purchases.
"The U.S. Navy has money available for such purchases," he said. "The Navy can reimburse up to one-half the cost of the potential development."
Bartlett said the county only entertains land sale discussions "with willing sellers and they like us because we pay cash."
The longest-tenured freeholder also said the uncertain financial times has made many large landholders queasy about the future worth of their acreage.
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