Consultant: Bad Traffic Intersections ‘Going To Get Worse’

---

Traffic conditions at eleven of 14 key intersections in the township’s Business and Industry Zone are bad and will get worse when all currently approved warehouse projects are operational, an engineering consultant told a group of residents on June 27.

“We’re looking at a bad situation that’s going to get worse,” Dave Roberts, director of planning for Bright View Engineering, the township’s consultant, told the group, which had gathered at the Township Council chamber for a community meeting on a reexamination of Franklin’s Master Plan.

“It just confirmed what we already suspected, which was the areas that were already failing were going to continue failing, only worse,” he said.

The Township Council hired Bright View to study traffic in the township in the wake of a slew of warehouse projects approved over the past few years, and as part of an overall Master Plan evaluation of the Business & Industry Zone. The Township Council removed warehouses as a permitted or conditional use in the B&I Zone in February, effectively banning future warehouse development in the township.

But that still leaves the residual traffic effect of warehouses that are now operational, those that are currently under construction, and those that are approved.

The Business & Industry Zone is essentially separated into two distinct areas in the northern and southern sections of teh township./

The larger area is roughly bordered by Route 287, Weston Canal Road, and Schoolhouse Road, and stretches to the eastern part of the township, Roberts said.

The southern region is roughly bordered by Veronica Avenue, Route 27, Hamilton Street, and JFK Boulevard, he said.

Bright View studied 14 intersections in those two areas, using traffic analyses provided by developers, as well as the site plans and other documentation for 38 warehouse projects, Roberts said.

“We got every application that had been approved and built, every application that had been approved and is under construction and every application that has been submitted but not yet acted on,” he said.

Using that information, Bright View then mapped out warehouse locations throughout Franklin when all projects are constructed.

“It’s a pretty sobering illustration of just what the township has been going through,” Roberts said.

The metric for measuring traffic impact on roads is known as “level of service.” Level of service is broken down into five categories – “A” to “F” – with an “F: grade being the worst.

“F means it’s failing; the wait time is unacceptable,” Roberts said. “It may mean that if you’re at a traffic light, you may have to wait a few cycles” before you can get through the intersection.

Bright View looked at traffic conditions in the morning and afternoon weekday peak hours, and also on Saturdays, he said.

Here is what Bright View found for certain intersections, according to Roberts:

• Weston Canal/Schoolhouse roads: On midday Saturdays, the left-turn movement is current rated an “E”, but goes to an “F” once traffic from projected development is added in.
• Schoolhouse and Randolph roads: The left turn in the evening period will be an “F” once additional traffic is added.
• Schoolhouse Road and Elizabeth Avenue: The southbound left turn in the evening is an “F.”
• Weston Canal and Randolph roads: The right turn onto Randolph or straight through the intersection rates an “F” in the morning and evening peak hours.
• Weston Canal and Cottontail: Left or right from Weston Canal, or right from Cottontail onto Weston Canal is an ovreall “F.”
• Weston Canal and the Route 287 ramp, exiting 287 onto Weston Canal Road: That gets an “F” in the morning peak once the new traffic from additional development.
• Davidson Avenue and Pierce Street: Two left turns, where current projects and projects “in the pipeline” will generate an “F” condition in the evening peak hours.
• Davidson Avenue and Easton Avenue: Overall “F,” existing and with the approved development that hasn’t been constructed yet.
• Veronica Avenue and Route 27: Coming straight into town from New Brunswick, that’s an overall “F” with the fully approved applications added in, and the straight movement on Route 27.
• Veronica Avenue and Hamilton Street: The westbound left turn onto Hamilton is an “F” in the evening peak hours.
• John F. Kennedy Boulevard and Hamilton Street: The southbound left turn onto Hamilton is an “F” in the morning peak.

All of the warehouse projects “have traffic reports submitted as part of the application, and those traffic reports typically conclude that they’re not going to significantly impact the performance of the intersection; at least not what they generate from their project,” Roberts said

“However, when you look at 38 of them, and you start to add them up, from a cumulative standpoint, it gives you a different picture,” he said.

Roberts said the report will give township planners another means of checking on developers’ traffic analyses.

“We have identified the problem, and the problem is significant, and now the question is, how do we react to it,” Roberts said.

“In some cases, it may seem like the horse is already out of the barn and we’re trying to close the door, and to some extent, that’s an honest evaluation of where we’re at,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean there won’t be opportunities in the future.”

Roberts suggested that the Business & Industry Zone might be shrunk through rezoning.

Roberts said the firm’s report and suggestions should be done and before Township officials by October.

Your Thoughts

comments