Burlington County Freeholder Director Joe Donnelly asked the Freeholder Board to support his initiative to unite the Route 130 Corridor towns to obtain funding for a safety study for the area.
The Tri State Transportation Campaign has identified Route 130 as one of the most dangerous roads for pedestrians in the state, due to 10 fatalities from 2008 to 2010. Unfortunately, other fatalities have occurred this year.
“It is imperative that pedestrian safety along Route 130 be improved,” said Donnelly. “The Route 130 Corridor has been a priority for the county for a long time.”
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the state Department of Transportation have grant money available for such a study.
“Once we have the plan, it will allow us to obtain the funding for the necessary structural improvements for the roadway and connecting intersections,” said Donnelly.
“There are real dollars available for the improvements that will get Route 130 off this most dangerous roadway list”
On March 25, Donnelly attended a River Route Advisory Committee meeting and presented a strategy to apply to the DVRPC and NJ DOT for these grant dollars to create a pedestrian safety study of Route 130 that would be used to identify improvements needed to assure pedestrian safety along the highway.
At the March 25 meeting, Donnelly distributed a sample resolution in support of the safety study for each of the 12 Corridor municipalities to adopt.
The resolution requests the DVRPC and NJ DOT fund the preparation of the study and potential remediation.
“I informed the advisory committee members that I would take the resolutions from the municipalities to the freeholder board and ask the board to adopt a similar resolution to forward to DVRPC to get the study started,” said Donnelly.
To date, Burlington City, Burlington Township, Edgewater Park, Florence and Willingboro have adopted resolutions of support for the study.
The remaining municipalities have the resolution in the queue for adoption in May. “I intend to follow up with all of these towns to get the support we need to get this study completed,” said Donnelly.
