Central Avenue Traffic Improvements to Start in Fall

The county is expected to start bidding out the Central Avenue traffic improvement project in the next week or two and preliminary work is scheduled to start this fall.

Councilman Mark Ciarrocca made the announcement during Tuesday night's Council meeting. He said all of Westfield's requests for the project, which will cover the length of the road from North Avenue to the Clark border, has been included in the project. The project is being designed to increase traffic flow along Central Avenue, provide safer crossing areas for school children and reduce traffic along side streets on the south side.

"It will be an enhancement to a lot of people in town," Ciarrocca said.

The centerpiece of the plan is a dedicated left turn signal on Central Avenue at the intersection with South Avenue. The signal is expected to allow traffic making a left from Central to South go faster and reduce congestion along the street. The lights at Sycamore and Grove Streets along Central Avenue will also be replaced to better time them out for traffic flow.

The plan calls for cul de sacs to be placed on Cambridge Street and Belmar Street at the intersection with Central Avenue. These cul de sacs, Ciarrocca explained, will stop traffic from using these streets as through streets to avoid congestion along Central Avenue. The cul de sacs will be designed with shrubbery at the intersection which will allow emergency vehicles easy access to the streets if needed, by driving over the shrubbery.

The new light at Cambridge and Central will be green most of the time. It will turn red when a pedestrian presses a button on the sidewalk in order to cross the street. The red period will be approximately 30 seconds. Ciarrocca said this was done in order to keep traffic flowing but to address resident concerns about the safety of children crossing to Jefferson School and Edison Intermediate School. He said the compromise of a pedestrian activated light will allow all concerns to be addressed. He noted that the light will likely remain green in the evening hours when there is little pedestrian traffic.

Central Avenue is a county road, so town officials needed to work with the county to develop the project. Ciarrocca praised the working relationship that has developed between town and county officials on the project. He noted that Mayor Andy Skibitsky worked closely with Freeholder Chairman Alexander Mirabella on getting approvals for the project.

"There was a lot of coordination between the town and the county," Ciarrocca said. "The working relationship between our local public works and traffic folks and the county folks has been good."