Statement from Mayor Grayzel on Route 24 Proposal

As mayor of Morris Township, I represented my municipality in April 2019 at a roundtable discussion of elected officials relating to deteriorating traffic issues on Park Avenue. On the dais at that meeting were Representative Mikie Sherrill, several of our State Legislators and County Commissioners, several representatives of NJDOT, and Mayor Conley as host of the meeting in his town.

The majority of the discussion during this April 2019 meeting focused on the increasing vehicular volume on Park Avenue, the deteriorating traffic conditions, and the failing mark of the signalized intersection with Columbia Turnpike. Testimony from the mayors of Madison, Chatham Township and Chatham Borough addressed the ramifications of the traffic standstill on Park Avenue that reverberated into those towns. Due to the traffic problems on Park Avenue (northbound) at rush hour, cars were heading the other way on Park Avenue and clogging the streets of those three municipalities to the south. Also brought up for discussion during this meeting were the traffic conflicts for cars exiting Route 24 and having to cross over lanes of traffic to make a left turn onto Park Avenue.

It is Morris Township’s firm belief that the proposed $6-10 million ramp does not alleviate the biggest problem caused by the multiple issues on Park Avenue, which is the traffic impact to Madison, Chatham Township, and Chatham Borough. Further, this proposed solution impacts Morris Township residents from accessing their homes and has the potential to create a whole new “crossover traffic” problem as cars coming off Columbia Turnpike will now need to cross two lanes on Park Avenue (in a very short distance) to access the newly proposed ramp to Route 24. During the morning rush, this crossover pattern literally has the potential of completely blocking traffic on Park Avenue heading southbound from Columbia Turnpike. In summary, the current proposal is a sub-optimal solution that likely will just cause new problems for our residents and any vehicle attempting to access Route 24 eastbound in the morning rush.

Further, it is unclear why the County Commissioners decided to move the location of the ramp from its originally sited location proposed for a vacant lot at 190 Park Avenue in Hanover, but mysteriously shifted location to south of the Hanover border to its current proposed location in an existing parking lot of an office building in Florham Park. The public deserves an explanation of what caused this shift and a further explanation of how residents of both Florham Park and Morris Township who live on Delaware Road can safely access their homes with a ramp sited directly across from their street.

Morris Township prefers to find sensible solutions to the problems facing our communities and feels that this modified proposal does not adequately provide relief for commuters on Park Avenue and the streets of our neighboring municipalities to the south. Morris Township continues to support a better-planned, long-term solution benefiting all the communities seeing the immediate impacts of these traffic problems rather than fast-tracking a modified plan that appears to benefit one party.

Furthermore, we believe a better solution to the current proposal would be to install an exit/entry ramp from Route 24 to connect to Campus Drive in Florham Park. Building a new ramp that would access the central area of Park Avenue would be a much better use of public funding rather than the sub-optimal approach currently under consideration.

I am hopeful that a federal allocation of general infrastructure improvement funding could include money to do the detailed engineering work necessary as a first step to implementing the better solution of accessing route 24 via Campus Drive that addresses all of the problems facing Park Avenue and more importantly addresses the concerns of all affected municipalities.

Jeff Grayzel

Mayor