Roosevelt Blvd. entrance needs to be fixed, committeeman says
By BILL BARLOW /Special to the Sentinel
MARMORA – On Dec. 26, members of the Marmora Volunteer Fire Company responded to a far-too-familiar scene.
Two cars collided at the northbound entrance to the Garden Sate Parkway. One person was freed from the damaged car and transported to the hospital, after firefighters used a rescue device known as the Jaws of Life to pry open the door.
Images from the scene show a hatchback with a crumpled passenger side door and a patient being removed by stretcher.
Curtis Corson has had enough.
“Something needs to be done there,” he said. “It seems like all this fall there’s been one there every two weeks. Something needs to be addressed.”
On Jan. 11, Upper Township Committee member Corson called for changes at the northbound entrance to the Garden State Parkway on Roosevelt Boulevard, stating that the site sees far too many accidents.
Other members of the Township Committee at the meeting, which was held remotely, agreed to ask officials to investigate and improve safety at the intersection.
Days later, another crash took place, again with two cars slammed together at 5:45 p.m. on Jan. 16 at the northbound entrance to the parkway. There were no injuries. Responding firefighters found a van off the road with front-end damage and a car pushed to one side awaiting a tow truck.
According to Corson, accidents often take place at that intersection, but the worst spot appears to be where the drivers making a left from the eastbound lanes merge with drivers entering from the westbound lanes of Roosevelt Boulevard, where there is a small grassy triangle and a “yield” sign on one side.
“A lot of people don’t seem to understand that yield means to stop for oncoming traffic,” Corson said.
He’s brought forward a resolution to be voted on at the next Township Committee meeting asking officials with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which oversees the parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway, to address the issue, initially with a traffic study and ultimately with a project to improve safety.
“Hopefully they can address that whole intersection,” he said.
The intersection sees traffic year-round, with extensive delays on summer weekends as beach traffic pours in from the parkway and Route 9. Since the closure of the Beesleys Point Bridge in 2004, most traffic from Upper Township to Somers Point has been routed to the intersection.
Corson said he did not know what would need to happen at the intersection to make it safer, saying that would be up to the traffic experts. One step he recommended was replacing the yield sign with a stop sign, which he suggested could make it clearer to drivers who has the right of way.
A spokesman with the Turnpike Authority did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
The township has tried for years to get a full interchange for Exit 20, the next exit south of Marmora’s Exit 25, without success. The project was included in a list of long-term projects, but so far has not been designed or funded.
Drivers can exit from the northbound lanes onto Route 50 in Seaville, or enter the parkway heading south, but there is no southbound exit or northbound entrance.
The NJTA has put hundreds of millions of dollars into southern New Jersey projects, including a new bridge and walkway connecting Upper Township and Somers Point, renovations to the lanes on the other bridge and installation of overpasses to replace the former stoplights in Cape May County.
Marmora Fire Chief Jay Newman did not respond to a request for interview. The volunteer fire company regularly posts images and information of accidents and fire scenes to its Facebook page, but does not necessarily post every emergency to which its members respond.
A scan of postings over the course of 2020 revealed three accidents at the intersection, more than any other location in the township. There were also several crashes on Route 9.
