Route 9 and Lacey Road Intersection Improvements to Come in 2012

It has been nearly a decade since Sen. Christopher Connors and the Lacey Rail-Trail Environmental Committee (LRTEC) have been advocating for road construction at Route 9 and Lacey Road but relief is on the way.

“We have been fighting for a long time to get the necessary funding and design in place so we could get the project moving as quickly as possible,” Connors said. “It’s in desperate need of improvement because of the volume of traffic and it’s location.”

The state Department of Transportation (NJDOT) recently announced that they would be funding $7,284,000 road construction at the intersection through their Fiscal Year 2012 Capital Program.

“We are moving forward proposed improvements to provide new turning movements throughout the Route 9 intersection with Lacey Road,” said Timothy Greeley, spokesperson for the DOT.

As provided by Greeley, the proposed improvement project would reconfigure the intersection as follows:

• The Route 9 northbound approach would feature a left-turn lane, through lane, and one shared thru/right turn lane.
• The Route 9 southbound approach would feature two through lanes and an exclusive right-turn lane. The Route 9 southbound left turn would still be accomplished utilizing the existing movement made via Oak Street and Parker Avenue.
• Lacey Road eastbound approach would feature a double left-turn lane, a through lane and a right-turn lane.
• Lacey Road westbound would feature a left turn lane and a shared through/right lane.
• Additional improvements include a new dedicated left turn lane from Route 9 southbound to Jones Road, new sidewalks throughout the project limits and the intersection’s drainage system will be upgraded.

The road improvements also may include concrete medians on the north and south sides of Route 9 but Greeley was unavailable to confirm this.

The $7.3 million in funding is just a current estimate of the project but the project will be at no cost to the township. The DOT will not know the actual cost until the project is awarded a year from now, Greeley said.

Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2012 and will not be done in phases.

“Route 9 as it now stands is well beyond its design capacity. The design by the DOT would alleviate much of the backup that we see which used to be just on weekends but is now occurring on a regular basis,” Connors said.

Donna Bahrle, a Lacey resident and member of the LRTEC, began advocating for road improvements at the intersection when James Weinstein was commissioner of the DOT in 1999. She began her fight after the township proposed the railroad right-of-way.

“We don’t need the railroad right-of-way,” Bahrle said. “That intersection is ground zero for evacuation. It can’t accommodate the traffic flow now. Forget about a state of emergency.”

Much of the bottlenecking in town will be relieved once construction is completed, Bahrle said.

But Mayor Gary Quinn disagrees.

“Both projects [Route 9 and Lacey Road and the railroad right-of-way] will do an additional amount of relief for the roadway but they won’t resolve the problem 100 percent,” Quinn said.

The improvements to Route 9 and Lacey Road will give people the ability to manuver better but once drivers get 300 feet past the intersection, it is the same highway, Quinn said.

“We supported the states plan since the inception. The plans the DOT come up with will certainly be a big benefit to the residents,” Quinn said. “Bu the railroad right-of-way will enhance the situation and bring relief also.”

Sen. Connors argued that the intersection has some of the heaviest volume of traffic in the 23 constituent municipalities, making it one of the most important transportation infrastructure projects in the district.

A meeting was arranged with the Commissioner in March 2001, after Bahrle filled out a problem report for the DOT.

The report pointed out problems regarding capacity- traffic volume, operational- traffic signal timing, physical condition- turning radius in the north-west corner, safety- left turn northbound and right turn southbound, and other- lane width and movement for stacking.

“Local area roadways and intersections have not been improved or modified to coordinate with population and traffic growth,” Bahrle wrote in the report. “This specific intersection has created dangerous conditions for turning vehicles and cannot handle the current volume safely or efficiently.”

The process for road improvements is a long one, Connors said. Many considerations including design, property acquisitions, property appraisals, and competition caused the long delay in getting this project moving.

Nearly a decade later, Connors and the LRTEC are seeing the results of their work.

“We have a file that’s quite thick that we sent to the office essentially expressing our continuing interest in the project,” Connors said. “This is a result of the diligence not only of this office but others who have expressed interest in having this done.”

Residents and surrounding businesses alike will be happy to know change is coming as the current design has caused many accidents and has impacted their businesses.

"It will be beneficial for the businesses and residents," Gisell Mason, financial services representative at TD Bank, previously said as she reflected on the many accidents that occur at the intersection.

Just in 2010, there have been eight accidents within the actual intersection. Two of those resulted in injuries, police officials said.

Owners of businesses surrounding the intersection have said that Lacey Road and Route 9 is a "troublesome intersection" that disrupts their work.

“The traffic is good for [business] over here but people also get annoyed because of the intersection so a lot of times they just keep driving," Kelly Mahoney, assistant manager of Spirits Unlimited said.  

Improving the intersection at Route 9 and Lacey road is just one of the projects the DOT proposed to alleviate traffic. In 2005 the DOT proposed other Route 9 intersection improvements including South Street, Laurel Boulevard, Haines Street, Musket Road, and Sunrise Boulevard as well as improvements at Lacey Road and Lake Barnegat Drive and South Street and Lake Barnegat Drive.

The intersections at Route 9 and Musket, Route 9 and South Street, Lacey Road and Lake Barnegat Drive and South Street and Lake Barnegat Drive are still awaiting improvements.