GSP Exit 29 would become full exit
By BILL BARLOW/Special to the Sentinel
SOMERS POINT – Overwhelming traffic has long been a fact of life on summer weekends for the neighbors along Laurel Drive, a narrow residential street standing between the west end of MacArthur Boulevard and the northbound entrance to the Garden State Parkway.
Traffic leaving Ocean City now has a wider new route along the Route 52 Causeway and extensive improvements along MacArthur, leading to about a mile of 25-mph neighborhood driving before reaching the parkway toll plaza.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which operates the Garden State Parkway, has a plan. As part of a long-term capital plan put forward during discussions of a potential toll increase, the authority proposed combining the two Somers Point exits into a single full exchange.
Currently, drivers heading north can reach Somers Point at Exit 29 at the foot of the bridge over Great Egg Harbor Bay, which is also where those heading south enter the parkway. Those heading south leave the parkway at Exit 30, which also has an entrance that leads to the northbound lanes.
The plan has been welcomed by some and was the subject of an editorial in a daily newspaper that said, in essence, it’s about time.
Trouble is, Somers Point’s mayor doesn’t like it.
“I understand the concerns on Laurel Drive, with the problems there,” Mayor Jack Glasser said. But he does not believe the answer is combining the exits into one full exchange. “Now you’re dumping all of that traffic into one area.”
He said that would just be a matter of moving the problem.
Another issue is that it is a straight shot from the end of the Route 52 Causeway to Exit 30. Traffic exiting at 29 must make a turn on Mays Landing Road to reach the bridge to Ocean City. Glasser said that would mean worse delays and more traffic problems.
There is another issue.
The state undertook extensive improvements along MacArthur Boulevard. For years, that route has been lined with businesses that depend on traffic heading in and out of Ocean City. According to Glasser, moving the route would mean the money spent on the improvements was wasted and the businesses may suffer.
“What we have to do is to find a better way to help Laurel Drive,” he said.
The authority does not have a timeline for the project. Authority spokesman Tom Feeney said it will be decades before all the projects on the multibillion-dollar plan could be completed.
“There really isn’t a plan to like or not like at this point,” Feeney said. The multiple projects outlined in the capital plan will be parsed out over a series of five-year plans. Each project will need a design phase and permits before any work could commence, and the public and local officials will have a chance to weigh in on the proposals as part of that process, he said.
“That project is a long way off,” Feeney said of the proposal for combining the Somers Point exits.
Once the project moves into the design phase, the capital plan indicates planning will take 27 months, with an additional 18 months of construction, according to the details included in the authority plan.
The cost is estimated at $15 million.
Laurel Drive has dozens of houses and a few businesses, including a gas station that likely depends on traffic heading to the northbound lanes of the parkway.
In the meantime, the Turnpike Authority is set to start a three-year project widening five miles of parkway, including improvements to Exit 30. That work is expected to begin this summer, according to a posted overview.
Eventually, the authority plans to shut Exit 30.
“The combination of Interchanges 29 and 30, each of which is a two-ramp incomplete interchange when considered separately, provides all movements between the parkway and Somers Point, including access to Ocean City by way of NJ Route 52,” reads the spring report on the capital improvement program. “However, the connection to Interchange 30 follows Laurel Drive, a residential road that has become congested with parkway traffic. To improve traffic flow and to keep through-traffic on state and county roads as a community and regional benefit, it is planned to complete missing movements at Interchange 29 and to close Interchange 30.”
Somers Point does want to see a local project from the authority.
On July 7, Somers Point City Council unanimously approved a resolution asking the authority to amend the capital plan. Point officials asked for the plan to include funding to improve the connection to the bike lane on the parkway bridge connecting Beesleys Point and Somers Point.
The lane, separated from the vehicle traffic, was opened for the first time this month, a move that delighted Upper Township officials and concerned officials in Somers Point, where they worry that walkers and bike riders may be in danger.
There is a painted bike and pedestrian lane on a bridge leading over the parkway, but riders then need to pass the exit where northbound traffic leaves the parkway heading into Somers Point.
“The plans to provide a safe connection to the new parkway bridge were developed in 2016, but there has been no progress on engineering or construction. Now that the state has raised tolls to fund a capital plan, funding should be made available immediately to build this important connection,” City Council President Sean McGuigan said in a prepared statement.
Released by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority in March, the long-term plan outlines billions of dollars’ worth of capital improvements on the parkway and turnpike, including $20 million for Exit 20, in the Seaville section of Upper Township, and the eventual completion of a full interchange at Exit 17, connecting with Sea Isle Boulevard, also expected to cost $20 million.