Roxbury Planning Board Grapples with Traffic Patterns in the Hercules Redevelopment Plan

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

The turnout for the September 6th Planning Board meeting was good, with few open chairs left in the meeting room. Hartz Mountain, the proposed developer for 57 acres of warehouses on the Hercules site, had expected to complete testimony on the Traffic Plan and provide testimony with respect to the Community Impact Statement and the Environmental Impact Statement. However, the meeting bogged down in discussions of the minutia regarding traffic patterns for over two hours.

Board members questioned the validity of the traffic study and disparities in the numbers of vehicles at various ramps and intersections during peak morning and evening rush hours. Due to the pandemic, the locally collected traffic study counts, which involved just one day’s sample, were uncharacteristically lower than normal. The published 2019 NJDOT traffic study data from before the pandemic were used to extrapolate current patterns using the highest number of vehicles as calculated from this combined data. The traffic sample and traffic study were completed by Langan Engineering in 2021, which may be before traffic patterns fully returned to normal. The Board was reluctant to rely on the findings. They also pointed out that some of the numbers are just too low for certain intersections based on their own driving experiences on Howard Blvd. One example was the westbound off-ramp from Rt.80 across from the park and ride. It showed a single-digit number (8?) of cars per hour. Lagan Engineering agreed to conduct a second traffic study sample in the future to confirm or alter their current findings.

There was a lengthy discussion about the adequacy of the proposed intersection that is designed to allow traffic into and from the Hercules property. The total number of vehicles coming either in or out of the warehouse facility each day will be 4,106.  Trucks will only be allowed to turn right when exiting the property. Vehicles exiting to the right will have their own lane from which to merge into the northbound lane. Vehicles turning right from the northbound lane will have their own entrance lane. Trucks and cars coming southbound off of Rt.80 will have their own turn left lane to enter the property with a traffic light and left turn arrow. The proposed left turning lane is only about 250' long, which means it can hold, at most, three tractor-trailers (or some combination of cars and trucks) before the turning lane traffic backs up into the through lane. The Lagan representative said It takes 9 seconds for a stopped semi to make a left turn and 5 sec. for a car. The traffic light’s left arrow is green for 23 seconds before northbound thru traffic gets the green light. The traffic light cycles 40 times per hour. Southbound cars and trucks on Howard Blvd. can continue to make a left turn for another 47 seconds if oncoming northbound traffic allows. The Board is worried that the left turn lane may not be long enough to prevent backups into the thru lane, and the 23-second delay for vehicles to turn left only allows 2.5 trucks to make the turn. Additionally, because of the topography, a hill beside Howard Blvd, looking towards the oncoming traffic from Rt.46, obstructs the vision for oncoming traffic. The plans call for lowering the height of the hillside to allow truckers an adequate view of oncoming traffic before making the left turn. There is a question of whether the plans to improve the sightlines are adequate due to vegetation growth and snowbanks in the winter.

There was also a discussion of the planned improvement by the State for the Rt.80 entrance and exit ramps. The Board questioned whether the net improvements in traffic flow from the planned improvement would be canceled out by the additional truck traffic expected for the warehouse operations.

Other questions about noise and air pollution raised by local residents were differed because other experts are expected to testify about those issues in a future meeting.

The next meeting will be at the Roxbury Municipal Building on October 4th at 7:30 p.m.