For Immediate Release:

May 12, 2010

 

Route 537/Gravel Hill Road upgrade plan selected

Intersection work aims to reduce accidents, ease navigation

 

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP, NJ – Municipal leaders in Freehold Township yesterday agreed with county officials and a majority of local residents that acquiring property from the southernmost side of Route 537 is the best option for improvements to the intersection with Gravel Hill Road.

 

Residents, business owners and municipal officials were presented with three possible alignment alternatives at a public session on Dec. 9, 2009, and all affected property owners along Route 537 were consulted individually. Now that an alignment has been chosen, construction plans can be finalized. It is estimated that work in the field could begin in August, if the acquisition of property needed to do the work can be completed by then.

 

“A lot of work has been done on this project and the county is very close to having a final plan,” Freeholder John P. Curley said. “It is our hope that we can award this bid sometime this summer and get construction started this August. Residents have been very supportive during this process and I thank them on behalf of the county. Everyone agrees this project must be done and it will.”

 

With the southernmost alignment, three property owners will have to be relocated because their homes are too close to the road. All three of those property owners have agreed to be relocated.

 

Plans are being drawn up by Cranmer Engineering of Shrewsbury. County officials and appraisers have been meeting with affected property owners on both sides of Route 537. Meetings have also taken place with the utility companies to discuss utility relocation, the state Department of Environmental Protection for environmental permits and officials from Freehold Township.  

  

“It’s great news that all parties agree that a southernmost alignment is the best alternative,” County Engineer Joseph Ettore said. “The county will be filing the DEP permits this week and we are looking forward to finalizing plans and going out to bid.”

 

Plans provide for safety measures and capacity improvements by installing a traffic signal, turn lanes and through lanes on Route 537 at Gravel Hill Road and a widening of Route 537 in that area. Residents have asked for a traffic signal at that intersection.

 

On Monday, a sports utility vehicle and a pickup truck collided at the intersection, sending several people to the hospital. Meanwhile, in Freehold, jurors are weighing the fate of a driver who was involved in a fatal accident at the intersection in 2007.

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