When I first posted details on Facebook of the 'Preferred Preliminary Alternative' a few days ago, and in talking with friends around town, people seemed to fall into 2 categories.
- Those who knew better. Many people thought that had better suggestions on how to fix our traffic issue than the professionals the state hired.
- Those who thought no changes would help - they were resigned that traffic was going to be bad regardless, so why waste the money.
I'm thinking that there must be a third category of people who are taking a wait and see approach, hoping that the people who do this for a living can help. The first two groups are usually more vocal.
The engineering firm hired by the state is urbanengineers.com. They were also the engineering firm that designed the Marlton Circle elimination project. You can read all about that process on their website, which touts that traffic accidents have been reduced by 74% and the project received many prestigious awards.
I spoke with both representatives from the State DOT and the engineering firm, and they advised that this project is still 5 years off. It will also go through many other iterations as they speak with local residents and elected officials. I also asked about the Royal Farms at Scaturro's, noting the State's current plan did not include a left turn light at Sunbird that Royal Farms has been petitioning form. The representative advised that Royal Farms is still petitioning the state - their request is now in its 5th iteration. It is another Department that handles their request. If Royal Farms does get a left turn light at Sunbird, that State Department would coordinate with this project lead to ensure continuity between the two projects.
In no particular order, here are the big changes (note: all yellow roads are changes to existing roads. I will show the current status of the road, followed by the planned changes):
Three lanes of thru traffic in each direction from right near the entrance to Marlton Crossing to Sunbird Drive.
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| 73 South is 2 lanes with a merging lane from Route 70 traffic. Briefly 3 lanes, then back to 2 at Marlton Crossing |
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| 73 Remains 3 lanes in each direction until Ardsley Drive (Target) |
Brick Road
When driving on Route 73 South and taking the jughandle at Brick, the jughandle brings cars back to Brick road further away from the intersection. An additional left turn lane has been added on both sides of 73 at Brick.
Right after Ardsley is where the 3 lanes in each direction start/stop. So this intersection now has 3 thru lanes in each direction on 73, plus right and left turn lanes going both directions.
Left Turn at Commonwealth
The unsignaled left turn lane at Commonwealth (near Rastelli's) will be eliminated. The engineer explained that is was too dangerous to make a turn from a dead stop across three lanes of 50MPH traffic.
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| Commonwealth left turn to be eliminated |
Sagemore and Marlton Parkway
I really wish I had asked about this, because I do not understand. I won't attempt to interpret it, but a rotary is being added at Sagemore Dr and Marlton Parkway,
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| Sagemore and Marlton Parkway today |
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| Planned Rotary for Sagemore and Marlton Parkway |
Edit 6/5/2018: One additional thing I forgot to write up. On Route 73 North, the left turn lane and light at Evesham Road would be removed. I assume that means if you need to make that left, you would need to make a right onto Marlton Parkway, drive a block and go around the rotary.