With incessant and endless traffic, it would be fair to call Lakewood the gridlock capital of New Jersey. Sitting in traffic is now part of everyday living of Lakewood residents and commuters who drive through town. The overly congested roadways can make routine errand runs into frustrating and sometimes harrowing experience. And with the constant expansion and building of new homes, there is no reprieve from the traffic in sight for Lakewood motorists.
What makes the congestion even more unbearable, is the construction on the roadways that seems to me to have become far more commonplace during daylight hours. In a town boasting a population of 100,000 and roadways designed for 20,000, these construction crews make an already exasperating commute a far worse situation. The work being done by these crews often force the need to completely shut portions of major thoroughfares, including the most congested road in Lakewood, the notoriously difficult Route 9.
When major roadways are shut by crews that could just as well be deployed at night rather than smack in middle of rush hour, it forces motorists to find other routes to their destination. With limited detour options, the majority of cars are pushed onto the side roads which then become clogged well beyond their carrying capacity. This causes a domino effect across the entire Lakewood, and traffic can be terrible for hours on major and minor roads all across the town.
It is unfair and ruinous for construction crews to be deployed on our major roadways during the day when thousands of commuters are taking to the roads. It is time that an ordinance be passed which would bar construction companies from doing their work during daylight hours. While it may be inconvenient for them, it does not compare to the hundreds of hours wasted away by motorists stuck in endless traffic jams.
The situation on our roads is bad enough as it is. Shutting down roads during rush hour only makes it so much worse. It’s time for a change.
It will easy triple the cost.
Due to Union Contracts and other factors the expense would be prohibitive.
Sure. Then you can complain about the noise at 10PM and 5AM. There are no winners in this game..
The work on Sunset Rd and James St has been taking place overnight. it’s doable.
Some people sleep at night, but not with the construction.
if the work was done at night costs would be lower because it would take half the time. people in this part of the world are afraid to swork at night. think how much easier and less time consuming if stocking shelves would be done at night instead of us having to contend with tripping over boxes and wagons and not being able to reach things because shelves were being blocked. we would be out in half the time. a few hours of night time work would enable people who are busy during the day to supplement their income
The minor problems:
1. Double pay during overnight hours
2. Construction lights and noise
The major problem is that as the article states, there are 5x more people than the roads were designed for, and the township was more concerned with the immediate for housing than the long term issues.
No one demanded that proper roadways were designed for the growth. No one looked into the future flooding dangers. No one made sure that schools were being built to keep up with the pace of the town, and so many high school girls are spending their summer with anxiety.
And now there is no winner. There are no solutions that don’t hurt the community as much as they help. We can only hope people start looking at long term effects.