Lincroft group pushing for new exit off parkway

BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer

A group of area mayors will ask the county to seek a state study of the feasibility of adding a new parkway exit to alleviate the high level of traffic at current exits in Eatontown and Lincroft.

Exit 107 off the Garden State Parkway would have a north entrance/south exit on Tinton Avenue in Tinton Falls as proposed by a group advocating for the change.

"There is a need for an interchange for the Garden State Parkway. Exit 105 is overcapacity and 109 is over capacity and both have failing grades from the county and state. A long-term solution would be adding exit 107 at Tinton Avenue," Walter Horan of the Lincroft Village Green Association Inc., told a March 13 meeting of the Two River Council of Mayors.

"We would like to see what the feasi­bility would be. We would like them [the state highway authority] to at least study it and tell us the number of cars it would take off local roads and away from the 105 and 109 interchanges."

With the eight local mayors in at­tendance agreeing, Red Bank Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr. said the group would petition the county to ask the state to look at the need for a new inter­change. The group meets monthly at Little Silver Borough Hall.

Though she went along with the rec­ommendation, Tinton Falls Mayor Ann McNamara made it clear her township would not support adding an­other parkway exit to the four that al­ready exit at Tinton Falls.

"I didn’t want you to think Tinton Falls would support this," McNamara said. "No one in Tinton Falls will sup­port this because Tinton Avenue is a residential street with a regional high school on it. It is all residential and two-lane."

"We’re not here to offend Tinton Falls," responded LVGA Rep. Maryellen Hintz. "We need a 107 somewhere, we need relief and this seems like a reasonable place. Tinton Avenue has a golf course, there are not that many private homes."

In their presentation, Horan and Hintz told the group that adding the new interchange would benefit the towns of Red Bank, Shrewsbury, Little Silver, Tinton Falls, Eatontown, Long Branch, Colts Neck and Middletown.

Road conditions would be improved on Hance Avenue, Hope Road, New­man Springs Road, Routes 35 and 36, Swimming River Road and Sycamore Avenue, they said.

While the state plans improvements to exits 105 and 109, Horan said the pro­jects will add only minimally to capac­ity and the interchanges will again be over capacity within two years.

Horan showed slides of the traffic-clogged intersection of Hope Road/Route 36 at the 105 interchange and Newman Springs/Half Mile Road at the 109 interchange.

Benefits of the new interchange in­clude improved access to Fort Mon­mouth, the largest employer in Mon­mouth County, with 5,500 employees, Horan said.

Also, the interchange would reduce local traffic, because residents will use the exit/entrance closest to home reduc­ing rush hour traffic and commuting time and enhancing quality of life.

Other factors arguing for improved access to the GSP include: New housing developments in the area, future devel­opment of the CECOM site, vacant land and farms that can be expected to be de­veloped and traffic generated by Brook­dale Community College students, he said in the meeting.

According to Hintz, a study of the in­terchange would also deal with under­utilization of Route 18, because it is dif­ficult to access.

Several mayors said heavy traffic flow associated with exits 105 and 109 is having a negative impact on residen­tial streets in their communities.

"The problem throughout the county is that we all have north/south cross roads," said Rosemary Peters, Middle­town councilwoman and former mayor. "People who go through Lincroft are coming from all over the county to get to Brookdale and exit 109 and jobs in Red Bank and the whole eastern end of the county. Lincroft is right in the mid­dle of that area and has been heavily impacted."

Hintz urged the mayors’ group to fol­low the lead of Middletown, which passed a resolution in December ask­ing the county to recommend a study of the proposed interchange.

"When we do things as individual towns, we have to look at how they are impacting our neighbors," said Hintz. "We have to start to look at regional is­sues."

The LGVA was formed in 1999 by a small group of residents focused on saving a tract of open land.

Since then, the 260-member group has opposed the widening of Newman Springs and Middletown-Lincroft roads and focused on other land conservation and traffic-calming initiatives.

The group is seek­ing new members and has a Web site, www.lincroftvillagegreen.org.