May 2, 2010

Capital City Redevelopment Corporation

Monique King-Viehland, Executive Director

135 West Hanover Street

2nd Floor

P.O. Box 203

Trenton, NJ 08625 

 

Dear Monique,

 

As residents of Trenton’s Glen Afton section, we are supportive of the efforts of the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation to lead the effort to revitalize the heart of Trenton, as well as beautify and enhance the main artery into and out of the city, Rte 29, through the "Boulevard Project".   We now ask your assistance in our endeavor to include the area north of Sullivan Way in the Route 29 Project Plan.   

We have  several areas of concern that have motivated us to request that our neighborhood be included in the Rte. 29 redevelopment project. These are enumerated below.  Also, we also offer several general proposals for alterations to this area of Rte 29.

 

Rte 29 as it passes through Glen Afton

In July 2007, the NJ DOT executed a $6.2 million resurfacing, regrading, and repaving project from Sullivan Way in Trenton to West Upper Ferry Road in Ewing Township. This project repaved the roadway with bituminous concrete, installed a dual-faced beam guardrail in the median along the northbound curb line, removed the southbound curb line, and regraded the grass median into a swale with a new drainage structure in the center.  

These upgrades, although certainly improving this section of Rte. 29, do not address the fundamental problem of this section of roadway.   The northbound lanes of this limited access, high speed, urban freeway pass through the center of a thickly settled residential neighborhood, often within several feet of the front yards of many homes along Sanhican Dr.   This has several adverse consequences for the residents along this area, including

§  Safety risks entering and exiting their own driveways including being forced into the very dangerous practice of having to back out onto a major highway.

§  The dangerous risk of trying to walk across the northbound lanes of Rte. 29 to access the rest of the neighborhood as well as the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath. There are no pedestrian crosswalks or signals in this area for the residents 

§  Significant property damage due to out of control automobiles going off the road and up onto people’s yards and homes.

§  Decrease in the aesthetic quality of life due to the traffic noise and air pollution caused by of the volume of traffic passing through this residential area.

§  Decrease in property values due to the close proximity of the highway to the homes. Over time the DOT has all but removed the planting aprons as well as any trees that might ameliorate the effect of the traffic

 

According to the initial goals found for the Route 29 Boulevard Plan in the DOT literature, this project should:

§  Reclaim the Delaware River Waterfront and improve access to it

§  Improve safety and provide traffic calming along Route 29

§  Promote urban and economic redevelopment in the Trenton area.

It has been documented that Route 29 is Mercer County’s deadliest road; from 1995 to 2005, Route 29 in Mercer County has been the scene of 30 deaths and 23 accidents. This research was gathered by newspaper writer Krystal Knapp in preparation for her article, “Racing to Save Lives on Route 29,” which appeared in The Times on February 19, 2006. The most recent deaths occurred in a November 2006 motor vehicle accident when four young women perished on Route 29 North, an area that is currently not on the  Route 29 Boulevard Project Plan. It should be in the interest of increased road safety and improved aesthetic and economic development to include the area of Glen Afton in the Route 29 Boulevard Plan

 

 A Series of Proposals to Alter Rte 29 N through Glen Afton

We would like to propose several possible scenarios that will help to mitigate the problems that the residents of Glen Afton face with having Rte 29 N running through our neighborhood.  These are given, as general scenarios, without all the details in the planning that would obviously be required to execute them.  The first three scenarios presuppose a change of the intersection of Sullivan Way and  Rte 29 to a roundabout/rotary with traffic stopping and exiting from one lane.

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1. Routing of all traffic coming in and out of the north side of the intersection to what is now Rte 29 S.  This would involve converting Rte 29 southbound into a single lane divided highway with an appropriate safety median that would expand out when the highway reached north of the section of Glen Afton that is now divided from the rest of the neighborhood by Rte 29 northbound (colloquially known as the "Ribeye").   The narrowing of a highway of this size for a short distance is not without precedent.  Rte 1 southbound narrows to one lane at the merge with the on ramp from the Brunswick Circle interchange.  This narrowing and opening occurs without significant slowing of traffic.  If desired, the single lanes of Rte 29 could be maintained all the way to Lower Ferry Road where a safer intersection and set of turns off and on Rte 29 could be designed. Sanhican Dr.  would be returned to a local access road with a 25 mph speed limit and would not connect into Rte 29 northbound .  The planting aprons would be appropriately expanded and planted with shade trees. Some design considerations would have to be made to allow local residents to access Rte 29.

2. The second scenario is similar in that Rte 29 northbound would be limited to one lane coming off the Sullivan Way intersection.  Sanhican Dr. would become one lane with expanded planting aprons on the residential side and a 25 mph speed limit appropriate for a thickly settled area.  The northbound lane would cross over at the southern end of the Ribeye onto what was part of Rte 29 southbound that had now been converted to one lane as in scenario one.  Sanhican Drive would continue as a local access road with wider planting aprons, planted trees and a 25 mph speed limit. It would not connect into Rte 29 N.  An advantage of this scenario is that is would maintain the current u turns in the median region to allow residents access to both Rte 29 N and S.

3. The third scenario would turn Rte 29 along its length through the neighborhood into a single lane road with a 25 mph speed limited, larger planting aprons and trees planted.   This would include a pedestrian walkway and /or signal to allow access to the rest of the neighborhood from the Ribeye.   These traffic-calming measures would make this road a low speed feeder to 29 N.  The highway would open up just north of the Ribeye as it currently does.

4. The minimum scenario we envision is to narrow the current Rte 29 N to a minimally acceptable two lane road. The speed limit would be dropped to 25 in this area and trees would be planted in the expanded apron. There would be no breakdown lanes through the tightest portion of the road through the Ribeye.  This would include a pedestrian walkway and /or signal to allow access to the rest of the neighborhood from the Ribeye.  

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Finally we insist that the installation of guard rails along this stretch of road be unacceptable in any form.  This would further lead to the deterioration of values in this area and encourage motorists to drive even faster since they are now protected from going off the road. 

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We hope that we can work with you concerning our discussions and proposals for this stretch of Rte 29.  It seems inconceivable that in the present day  a highway could be put through a neighborhood of stately old homes.  We hope that by working with the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation, we can right this wrong and restore and improve our neighborhood for the benefit of Trenton and its residents.

 

Sincerely

 

Paul G Mitsis

Nancy McKeen

D.A. Graham

Bill Watson

Members of the Glen Afton Community Association

The Residents of Glen Afton