By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer
ALLENTOWN – Traffic on borough streets remains an ongoing issue for Allentown – one that the mayor and a resident recently addressed in letters to Monmouth County officials.
A letter that Mayor Greg Westfall wrote to Joseph Ettore, the county engineer, and a letter that Nancy Tindall wrote to the Monmouth County freeholders were the subject of discussion during the July 26 meeting of the Borough Council.
In her letter, Tindall informed the freeholders she has lived in the greater Allentown area her entire life and purchased a home on High Street five years ago.
High Street is designated as county Route 539.
Tindall wrote, “I made that investment knowing the house was close to the street and that it was a busy route for vehicular traffic. Having said that, I would like to share several observations with you. First, High Street has a 30 mph posted speed limit except when a school zone light is flashing; the impression is that traffic coming from the east does not slow down until it approaches the intersection with South Main Street (Route 524), and that traffic accelerates quickly as it turns east onto High Street from South Main.
“Second, there seems to be a preponderance of construction vehicles and tractor-trailers that use High Street; tractor-trailers have difficulty negotiating the intersection at High and South Main streets, (and at) South Main and Church streets … “.
Tindall asked the freeholders to “consider conducting a traffic count and study along High Street to understand the traffic movements and determine the source of the truck traffic, and consider reducing weight limits on High Street. Second, consider reducing the posted speed limit to 25 mph on all streets throughout Allentown.
“Third, consider installing traffic calming structures at strategic locations such as in the vicinity east of the entrance to the Upper Freehold Regional School District property. Fourth, consider directing truck traffic away from High Street by encouraging trucks traveling west on Route 539 onto Interstate 195 by way of Sharon Station Road and Route 526,” she wrote.
In regard to Tindall’s suggestion about traffic calming structures, which are sometimes referred to as speed bumps or speed humps, Borough Attorney Greg Cannon said those structures should not be considered as an initial option. He said that in some cases, speed bumps create noise that is more troublesome to nearby residents who then have to listen to the sounds of vehicles passing over the speed bumps all day, every day.
Cannon suggested there may be steps that can be taken before any decision is made to install speed bumps.
In his letter to Ettore, Westfall asked for the county engineer’s assistance in addressing issues with non-terminating truck traffic on county routes 524, 526 and 539 in the borough. The mayor said Allentown is one of a few communities in Monmouth County where county roads bisect the community in two directions: north-south by Route 539 and east-west by Route 524 and Route 526.
Westfall wrote, “All our intersections are failing with no way to improve them without tearing down or harming historic buildings … Due to the failing intersections in Allentown, particularly at Main Street (Route 539) and Church Street (Route 526), trucks are unable to make a movement either way due to the narrowness of the streets and the proximity of historic structures to these county roads.
“Turning radii are such at the failing intersections that large trucks end up running over corner curbs. During the past three months there have been three tractor-trailer accidents in which pedestrians have been narrowly missed, while street signs, bollards and other features of our recently completed streetscape project have been destroyed.
“Within the last year there have been power poles knocked out and ripped out overhead wires on Church Street in separate incidents. … These truck accidents/incidents have been all due to non-terminating truck traffic. The Interstate 195 corridor, located within 1 mile of Allentown, is the appropriate route for large non-terminating truck traffic through the Allentown vicinity,” the mayor wrote.
In closing, Westfall wrote that Allentown “respectfully requests that truck traffic (other than local deliveries or loadings) of over 4 tons be prohibited on routes 524, 526 and 539 in the borough. We are prepared to work with the county and the New Jersey Department of Transportation to initiate and follow through on … any necessary steps to do this.”
Council President Wil Borkowski said a key element in dealing with the issue of truck traffic in the borough is to work toward removing Church Street from any plan which designates that thoroughfare as a federal or state route for trucks.
