The lanes would flow north-and-southbound after the Route 70 and Route 73 interchange and continue through Ardsley Drive.
Officials from the state Department of Transportation are exploring the possibility of adding a third lane of traffic to north-and-southbound sections of Route 73 in Evesham Township, starting after the Route 70 and Route 73 interchange and continuing through Ardsley Drive.
DOT officials say the start of construction on such a project would be at least a minimum of five years away, with the project also including the widening of Brick Road and Evesham Road/Marlton Parkway to provide dual, left turn lanes at each of those intersections.
Officials from the DOT spoke about the proposal at this week’s Evesham Township Council meeting, noting the Evesham Road/Marlton Parkway intersection ranked 16th out 193 “High-Need Signalized Intersections” in the state and 11th out of 91 for needed DOT “Highway Operational Improvements.”
“From a DOT standpoint on congestion and management systems, it’s a high priority location,” said Scott Diehl, one of the DOT’s engineers working on design for the project.
Diehl said the section of Route 73 the DOT studied had more than 1.5 times the number of crashes as the state average for roadways of a similar type, with 85 percent of those crashes stemming from same-direction rear end crashes and same-direction sideswipe crashes.
For the Evesham Road/Marlton Parkway intersection, Diehl said same-direction rear end crashes and same-direction sideswipe crashes accounted for almost 62 percent of all accidents.
According to Diehl, those types of crashes are indicative of congestion where the DOT sees stop-and-go traffic.
“The congestion contributes to the safety along that corridor,” Diehl said.
Under DOT guidelines, Diehl said traffic levels met or exceeded capacity at several points throughout the day along the north-and-southbound lanes of Route 73 and the east-and-westbound lanes of side streets such as Maple Avenue/Centre Boulevard, Brick Road, Evesham Road/Marlton Parkway and Ardsley Drive.
“In addition to the queuing on Route 73, we have queuing conditions on the side streets as well,” Diehl said. “We have congestion and queuing on the side streets where people have to wait repeated cycles to make turns.”
With nearly 5 percent growth expected on current traffic volumes by 2040, Diehl said DOT projections show a rapid deterioration where the studied roads reach or exceed their traffic capacity levels in even greater numbers at more points throughout a day.
If the DOT were to follow through with the additional lanes on Route 73 and left turning lanes at the Evesham Road/Marlton Parkway intersection, DOT projections show little to no instances where roads in 2040 would meet or exceed their traffic capacity levels at any point during a day.
Diehl said the DOT also tested future traffic capacity with a 20 percent increase from current levels to account for any motorists who currently avoid Route 73 because of known delays, and even then Diehl said the DOT predicted “really nice operations” in the morning and afternoon peak periods.
As part of the project, Diehl said the DOT also suggests removing the northbound left turn along Route 73 at Evesham Road to prevent traffic turning across three, through lanes.
Instead, Diehl said the DOT suggested left-turning traffic be directed to first make a right turn onto Marlon Parkway and use a new roundabout at the intersection of Sagemore Drive to turn around and head back to the Evesham Road intersection to cross Route 73.
As the DOT continues to explore the project, Mayor Randy Brown said this was just “day one,” and noted the township would also have some input into design and architecture, similar to the process more than a decade ago when plans took shape to replace the Marlton Circle at the intersection of Routes 70 and 73.
“Our town is a much better town and flourishes business-wise today because of the overpass and the changes that we made to the Marlton Circle,” Brown said. “We welcome innovation in our town as you all know, we welcome progress in our town, but understand … this is just piece one. It’s an idea of what they want to do.”
