A roundabout way to Brookdale is approved
County accepting bids for $1.27M traffic project
BY KAREN E. BOWES
Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN - They'll be coming around the roundabout when they come to Brookdale next year.

Students at Brookdale Community College, Newman Springs Road/County Route 520, will soon enter and exit campus via a new roundabout, a type of circle meant to slow down traffic.

The Monmouth County Freeholders approved the $1.27 million project last week and are accepting bids from contractors.

Now rapidly vanishing from highways, traffic circles in the Garden State have become infamous, often associated with feelings of dread and panic. Naturally, their was some initial skepticism over the proposal.

"I'm anxious to see if this actually works," Middletown Mayor Thomas Hall said on Monday. "This is out of the box and something that's unusual in terms of solutions."

Hall had not yet been elected back in December of 2004 when Florida-based transportation engineer Michael J. Wallwork attempted to squelch roundabout fears during a presentation before the Middletown Township Committee. At the time, Wallwork explained the major differences between a circle and a roundabout. Traffic circles are typically three to four times larger than a roundabout, he said. The smaller size reduces the risk of accidents.

Speed is also lessened because drivers are forced to travel approximately 15-20 mph. Comparatively, in a traffic circle, motorists usually drive between 30-60 mph, according to Wallwork.

"It is essentially a scaled down version of the traffic circle," Freeholder Robert Clifton said on Monday, "but with benefits that include providing the necessary gaps in traffic, thereby reducing accidents and increasing pedestrian safety."

Middletown Committeewoman Rose-marie Peters was present for Wallwork's talk. Recently, she spoke about how Lincroft residents rallied together to ensure a roundabout, not a jughandle or other device, was installed at the site.

"They really felt a roundabout was a good solution," Peters said.

A debate over what to do with the intersection has been ongoing for years. In 2003, the Lincroft Village Green Association, a local group of residents, hired Wallwork in response to the county's plan to widen Route 520 by two lanes. At one point, the idea of installing a double jughandle was also discussed. The residents said they sought out Wallwork in hopes of finding a more pedestrian-friendly design.

"This is a good example of the county, local government and citizens working together to find a creative solution to traffic problems," Clifton said.

The Brookdale intersection is only one of several locations on Route 520 that the group believes could benefit from a roundabout. According to Peters, the group would also like to see roundabouts at the intersections of Middletown-Lincroft Road and Half Mile Road.

"That's when I began to question where a roundabout could work and where it couldn't work," Peters said.

The group provided committee members with a video, Peters said, which showed the benefits of roundabouts on busy roadways.

"Apparently, there are a quite a number of towns using roundabouts with a positive effect," Peters said.

Engineers chose to build the first roundabout at the Brookdale intersection because it was "a good trial" location, Peters said. It's the least busy of the three intersections and it would be cheaper to maintain compared to a jughandle, according to Peters.

"To their credit, they did do a lot of research," Peters said.

Hall noted that if the roundabout does not perform well, it can be easily replaced.

"It will be critical to see how this performs," Hall said. "When the county presented the demonstration, they also mentioned that this particular design, if it doesn't work, the construction would be easy to alter into something more conventional."

This will be the first roundabout built in Monmouth County, according to the freeholders, who said work is estimated to begin in September. Once begun, it will take about three or four months to complete. During construction, a temporary bypass will be built on Brookdale property.

The project is estimated to cost $1,272,000. The traffic light presently located on the site will be removed during construction.