New Jersey OKs lower summer speed limit
35 mph limit on main stretch May-September
BY LIZ SHEEHAN
Correspondent

SEA BRIGHT - The borough has received permission from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to drop the speed limit from 40 mph to 35 mph from May 15 to Sept. 15 on portions of Route 36, the state-owned highway that runs along the oceanfront and is known locally as Ocean Avenue.

The change came after several years of requests by the town to lower the speed limit during the time when motorists use the highway to drive to local beaches at the same time that many pedestrians are crossing the road to reach the beach.

Borough Clerk Maryann Smeltzer said last week that there was a letter-writing campaign by the residents that helped attain approval of the speed reduction from the DOT.

The new speed limits, which were set by a Borough Council resolution passed in April, will apply from the Monmouth Beach line to Marius Lane, just south of the town's business district, where the present limit of 30 mph will remain unchanged, up to 500 feet north of the Rumson Bridge.

From 500 feet north of the bridge, the limit will be 35 mph until the Sea Bright-Highlands line.

According to the borough police department, the new speed limit will extend to the beginning of the Sea Bright-Highlands Bridge.

Another traffic-related change in the borough was discussed by Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka-Adams at the council's meeting last week.

She said that at the borough's request the state police had come into the town to check on truck traffic earlier in the week.

On one visit, Kalaka-Adams said, the troopers found two trucks that were so unsafe that the drivers were not allowed to continue driving them and five trucks that needed to be taken out of service, but the drivers were allowed to drive them to get home.

There were also 22 violations found on trucks without even weighing them, she said.

The weight of the trucks is a concern to residents and officials because of the vibrations that cause shaking of buildings when some trucks travel through the town. The state police are being asked to set up a weighing station in the borough, Kalaka-Adams said.

She said that traffic would not be affected by the truck checks and weighing because it's done early in the morning, starting at 5 a.m., and will take place in the Peninsula House parking lot.

The times when the state police will be doing truck checks will not be made public, Kalaka-Adams said.

She said the state police have been very responsive to the borough's concerns about problems with trucks.