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Route
520:
2006 |
Brookdale
Roundabout Approved
At the regular Freeholders meeting on July 13, 2006, the
Monmouth County's Board of Chosen Freeholders approved Monmouth
County Engineering Department's plans for improvements to
the intersection of Brookdale Community College entrance at
Newman Springs Road. The plans call for the construction of
a one lane roundabout with additional ingress and egress roads
to and from the Brookdale driveway from CR 520. Construction
for the roundabout began in May 2007 and is expected to take
about three to four months. The college entrance and CR520
will remain open during construction. The construction plans
can be viewed here.
Roundabouts, popular in other states and around the world,
have been shown to vastly reduce accidents while increasing
the traffic flow at intersections. Recently, the borough
and township of Princeton studied and consequently endorsed
the building of many roundabouts along Route 206. (AP
11/05/2006) Unlike traffic circles, the rules in a roundabout
are well defined: vehicles entering a roundabout must yield
to vehicles already in the roundabout. The size and
angle of the entrances and exits of the roundabout naturally
prohibit speeding. Read more about roundabouts here.
The idea for a roundabout at the Brookdale entrance was
first proposed several years ago by Winnie Scuteri, a former
LVGA Director. In 2003 the LVGA hired a roundabout expert,
Mr. Michael Wallwork, to present information about roundabouts
to both the County Engineering Department as well as the Middletown
Township Committee. The county subsequently presented
two possible plans for improving the Brookdale entrance to
the Middletown Township Commitee on December 20, 2004.
In March, 2005, Middletown Township wrote a letter to the
County Engineer, Mr. Joseph Ettore, endorsing the proposed
roundabout plan. That letter can be viewed here.
The County Engineering Department with the help of the engineering
firm of Schoor DePalma and the consultant, Michael Wallwork,
developed the plans for the roundabout that is to be built.
The proposed roundabout has been covered by the press in
the following articles with links:
The Independent:
June
26, 2006 "A roundabout way to Brookdale is
approved"
December
28, 2004 "Easing traffic in a roundabout way"
The Lincroft Village News:
January 2005
"The Roundabout: Making Believers of Skeptics"
December
2003 "What about a Roundabout"
The Asbury Park Press:
July 19, 2006
"Roundabout approved to alleviate college traffic"
April 21,
2006 "It's about time for a roundabout..."
August 24,
2006 "A new kind of circle is coming around"
(about Collingswood & BCC roundabouts)
December
8, 2006 "Newman Springs roundabout project moves
forward"
Tragic Accident: On November 1, 2006, a
tragically fatal accident occurred on Newman Springs Road
that took the lives of two people. The LVGA wrote a letter
expressing our sympathies to the families of the victims and
demanding that the township, county and state make needed
improvements to CR520 to improve its safety. In addition
we have called for Route 18 and GSP improvements to reduce
the volume of traffic on CR520. Read our letter here.
Published news articles and letters to the editor are available
in the 'In the News'/News articles section
of this website.
Read additional news about CR520 at CR520: 2007
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