An aerial view of Harding Road and Prospect Avenue, marked up with possible changes and a data box describing current conditions. Engineers recommended a less extensive fix than the one shown. Click to enlarge.
The troubled intersection of Prospect Avenue and Harding Road has moved up on Monmouth County’s to-do list.
Last night, a pair of county engineers made a presentation to the Red Bank borough council outlining three options for cutting down accidents and improving “level of service” at the juncture — meaning the amount of time a motorist typically waits to get through it.
At peak traffic hours, during the morning rush, vehicle movement from northbound Prospect gets an ‘F’ grade, said assistant county engineer Pete Imperiale. There are no turning lanes, and sight lines are restricted.
He and principal engineer Ray Bragg presented three options, all of which included the installation of a traffic signal at the intersection.
The first, the installation of the light only, wouldn’t require the acquisition of any private property, but would only boost the performance up to a ‘C.’
The second option calls for the creation of left-turn lanes from both directions on Prospect, and would mean minor right-of-way acquisition, he said, and would nudge the score up to a ‘B.’
Option three would make the above changes as well as the creation of a right-turn lane off northbound Prospect, a job that would entail both acquiring “a fairly significant amount of right-of-way” from a homeowner in Little Silver and the destruction of ” a significant number of trees,” said Imperiale.
And after all that, the score would still be only a ‘B,’ he said.
“That improvement does not really give you a significant improvement in level-of-service,” he said.
Imperiale and Bragg recommended the second option, and asked for an endorsment from the council. Mayor Pasquale Menna said the governing body would respond by the end of the month.
The plan requires thumbs-up from Little Silver and Fair Haven as well, because those towns meet the Red Bank border at the intersection. Bragg said the council in Little Silver has backed the second option, and Fair Haven hasn’t yet weighed in.
As for a timetable, the engineers said they hope to put the job up for bid and award a contract this summer, with construction starting in the fall.
Their boss, County Engineer Joe Ettore, told redbankgreen in November, 2006 that he expected work on a traffic light at the intersection would begin in the spring of 2007.
