By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE – Monmouth County is moving forward with a plan to construct a roundabout that will replace the oddly configured Millstone Township intersection known as Scooter Corner.
Scooter Corner is a five-spoke intersection that is not controlled by a traffic signal. The location is the meeting point of Stagecoach Road (Route 524), Millstone Road and Paint Island Spring Road.
In the wake of several recent motor vehicle accidents in the community and with concern about safety on Millstone’s roads on their minds, municipal officials and residents have stated their desire for safer roads in the community.
In addition to an increase in the township’s population which has led to more cars on local roads, Millstone has seen an increase in through traffic, according to residents who have commented on the issue.
Monmouth County’s plan calls for the construction of a roundabout, which is a traffic calming device, at historic Scooter Corner.
In the past few years, the county has constructed roundabouts at the entrance to Brookdale Community College in Lincroft and at the junction of several roads in Colts Neck at a location that is not unlike the multi-spoked Scooter Corner intersection in Millstone.
Monmouth County Freeholder Director Tom Arnone told the Examiner on Sept. 12 that the design plan for the roundabout is 75 percent complete. He said county officials began to seek funding for the project in November 2015.
Arnone, who sits on the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, said the county has received a verbal commitment for $1.75 million in federal funding that should cover all of the construction costs for the roundabout and a good portion of the construction management costs.
He said the county is moving to acquire property at Scooter Corner that is needed to construct the roundabout. County officials are negotiating with several property owners in that matter, Arnone said.
Contracts for the acquisition of property have been updated and are expected to be presented to the land owners in the near future, he said.
Arnone said the funding agreement for the project could be finalized in the next 60 days and he said that in a best case scenario, construction of the Scooter Corner roundabout could begin in the fall of 2017.
