Residents pan traffic-calming plan
Twp. stops work on roundabout at busy intersection
BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer

COLLEEN LUTOLF Carol Wasner points to the traffic-calming measures being built on Ashwood and Sprucewood drives she and over 50 other Birchwood Park residents say they don't want.

BRICK - Get the roundabout out.

Residents in the Birchwood Park section of Brick say they don't want a roundabout, a small circle in the middle of the road that is meant to slow down traffic, at the intersection of Ashwood and Sprucewood drives.

The only problem is, it's already being built.

The Township Council approved in July a resolution that allocated $76,026 in grant money to L&L Paving, Tinton Falls, to build the roundabout in the neighborhood. The money also paid for curbing and teardrop-shaped medians on each of the four streets leading up to the proposed roundabout, which is now just an outline of a circle carved into the road.

The medians and curbing are already in place.

"What's already been built will cause problems," said 23-year Birchwood Park resident Bob Sattler. "Never mind the disaster they have planned for the center."

Dawn Wasner, who lives on the corner of Ashwood and Sprucewood drives with her mother and father, Carol and Fred, said kids are already using the medians as bike and skateboard ramps, something the family feared would happen once they saw what the township planned for the intersection.

The resolution was recommended by the administration as the last of three traffic-calming measures scheduled for the neighborhood, measures like speed

bumps that the township began implementing five years ago.

The recommendation was made by the Neighborhood Preservation Project, a township-run program.

But if some Birchwood Park residents have their say, that roundabout will never materialize.

"People don't know how to ride around circles, that's why they got rid of them," said Elmwood Place resident Sharon Campos. "This place is going to look like Times Square."

Residents are convinced that the intersection, which they said has been the scene of three accidents in the past 20 years - mostly from the driver's lack of discretion - will soon become the site of myriad traffic pileups.

"If we had a lot of accidents, I could understand it," said Fred Wasner.

Residents are also concerned how snowplows will navigate through the circle.

What seemed to bother residents most is that no one notified them that the circle was going to be built in the first place.

In August, signs went up on the corners of Ashwood and Sprucewood drives saying roadwork would begin Sept. 12.

Carol Wasner said she didn't know what kind of work would begin because when she called town hall she got the "runaround" on the roundabout.

"They didn't know what I was talking about," she said.

About 21 Birchwood Park residents attended a Sept. 26 Township Council meeting to request the township stop the work.

The township complied, and scheduled a meeting with residents for Oct. 2.

"My hope for an outcome is that we convince the residents" that the work planned for the intersection will help reduce speeding, not cause problems.

"They're just used to seeing a wide expanse of asphalt," said acting Business Administrator Scott Pezarras. "It appears really small because that's the purpose - it's supposed to appear small so you slow down. The way the device works is that the way it's laid out, it makes it look like you're not going to fit through."

He said two other sites in town have traffic-calming circles, such as one on Mandalay Road in the Drum Point section of town, and they've been successful.

Tuesday morning, council President Anthony Matthews said about 60 residents had turned out to the Monday night meeting expressing their concerns.

"The biggest thing about this was that the residents were never notified," Matthews said.

Pezarras said contractors should know they are responsible for notifying residents.

"Everybody right near the construction, the engineer went around and talked to every person and told them and explained what the project was," he said.

The work will remained stopped until Pezarras meets with township professionals regarding the options they have for the intersection this week, Matthews said.

"If they say they don't want it, we'll have to make the decision to move forward or not," Pezarras said. "A considerable amount of work has been done."

If the township restores the intersection to its original state, taxpayers will have to shoulder the cost, he said.