Real solutions needed to fix traffic at new bridge

Is he kidding? No doubt Jay Cosgrove wrote his letter that appeared in last week's paper from the comfort of his living room or his restaurant, Bahrs. He and his dad were all for this stupid bridge. His family collects monthly checks from the NJDOT for use of his property by the J.H. Reid Construction Co., and now he wants people to hurry up and finish the new bridge construction?

I was very affected by the traffic in and out of Sandy Hook last weekend, living one block from the bridge construction. But working around the clock and making the homeowners who live near the bridge suffer 24/7 is not the answer. We endure enough seven days a week, 12 hours a day, with traffic detours, backups, noise, vibrations, property damage, not to mention the fact that our property values have decreased. The lack of real estate sales in the area makes getting comps for refinancing or real estate listings difficult.

The people of Highlands need some relief. At the very least, a police officer at the traffic light entrance of Sandy Hook 18 hours a day on the weekends with other police at the traffic lights on Route 36 to keep the traffic flowing and the intersections clear would help. This past weekend, from time to time, there were police officers present, certainly not later in the evening after Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area had closed.

The NJDOT released a traffic study in January 2009 predicting over two-mile backups this summer because of the traffic light at the entrance to the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area. The DOT's solution? Request that the Coast Guard limit the bridge openings to once an hour. Guess what? The bridge rarely opened this past weekend. Just wait until the new bridge is completed — if we all survive another couple of years of this bridge construction and there are still backups. One hundred and fifty million dollars later, and we have the same problem traffic. Guess we will have to try widening Ocean Avenue, which is well within the NJDOT's capabilities, since they own Ocean Avenue/Route 36.

As a leading business owner and community leader in Highlands, Mr. Cosgrove's suggestion to work the clock on the new bridge construction was socially irresponsible. Perhaps he could have been more community minded when others were fighting to repair the bridge. At least if the bridge was repaired, we would maintain our views, preserve some of the history of Highlands, have less or minimal property damage, and property values most likely would have stayed the same.

Listen, the traffic is here to stay for at least the next five years. Perhaps the NJDOT and the governing body of the Borough of Highlands and Sea Bright could work together to develop a practical solution to the traffic problem, like a well-publicized car ferry from South Amboy or Keyport, or a park-and-ride system where people could be transported from a large parking area on the Garden State Parkway via NJ Transit buses with a fare subsidized by the NJDOT.

This is the Jersey Shore. Let's work together to come up with some real solutions to solve the traffic problems and stop thinking if we throw money at the bridge construction that it will go away.
Shirley Olman
Highlands