Ridgewood will allow changes to road repairs
MAY 30, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — Officials say a street-improvement project that has upset some residents is likely to be revised to allow traffic lanes to be restored later if the plan doesn’t work.
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld said at Wednesday night’s council meeting that proposed changes could be made to the $500,000 project based on “residents’ concerns, and some of our own internal brainstorming.”
She was among several Ridgewood officials who met on Tuesday night with residents of the neighborhood where the work, which should be completed in July, is taking place.
Shovels first hit dirt last week on the project, which officials maintain will improve safety for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians around Garber Square, as well as along Franklin Avenue and Broad Street.
But a number of residents said work to install bike lanes and an 8-foot-wide median sprinkled with trees and ornate lighting, which is swallowing up two traffic lanes, is already causing backups. They contend the project will only imperil bicyclists, with four lanes of traffic cut down to two.
“We will put traffic plates on certain roads to provide empirical data on traffic flows and speed,” Sonenfeld said, adding these would be installed on Heights Road, West Ridgewood Avenue, Franklin Avenue and Godwin Avenue.
Sonenfeld suggested that cameras be installed temporarily at Franklin Avenue and Garber Square, to film a week’s traffic for analysis.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-will-allow-changes-to-road-repairs-1.1026433
Nice to see they’re doing a traffic study. If it results in the bike lanes being abandoned, will we have to give the grant money back?
I think if you look at the back ups on godwin to wilsey sq. it will show the back ups come from w bound traffic trying to turn left into whole foods.
yea like they had a choice.
The traffic was backed up to the Chase Bank on Godwin and to the corner of Heights Rd. and West Ridgewood all day yesterday.
A third grader could have predicted the congestion caused when you choke a busy road from 4 lanes to 2 lanes.
Stupid is as stupid does.
If it gets bad and stays bad, how about detour signs taking people from Godwin down Ackerman and Doremus, under the overpass at Ackerman and Broad, and left on Broad?
Bet our brilliant engineer never even thought of that. Could he please retire or be fired?
Drivers who turned right onto Ackerman could stop at Van Dyk’s for ice cream. Win-win, as some of our officials love to say.
They’re saying it will take 3 months and we know how often road repair estimates are accurate. If this takes all summer and into the fall, what a nightmare. Many drivers may not know how else to get across the tracks. They may even have an emergency.
As for me, I will keep shopping in towns west, south, and north and when I absolutely have to head east, go via Glen. Of course if Valley were doing its construction thing now, there would be no recourse in that direction, either. They would basically occupy Glen and Linwood, eliminating those roads for general travel.
It doesn’t matter how long the construction takes.
We are already down to one lane in each direction.
What you see now is what will be.
Who came up with this unworkable plan?