Politics & Government

Hekemian's Traffic Impact Study Ignores Critical Intersections, Oradell Traffic Engineer Says

Oradell's traffic engineer concludes the proposed development of the United Water property can handle the increased traffic, although critical intersections were not included in the study.

Louis Luglio, a traffic engineer, testified to a report he prepared regarding the traffic impact study submitted by Hekemian's traffic expert, Elizabeth Dolan. It was Dolan's position that the proposed development of the 13-acre United Water property would not negatively impact traffic in that area. The proposed development includes a 70,000 sq. ft. supermarket, 4300 sq. ft. bank and 24 low-income residential housing units.

Louis Flora, the attorney hired to represent the Borough of Oradell before the New Milford Zoning Board, brought in Luglio to review Dolan's study.  

After reading Dolan's traffic impact study and conducting his own field visits to the site and surrounding roadways, Luglio concluded that the area of the proposed development can handle the traffic, but said that the additional traffic will add to the peak hour congestion, a problem prevalent throughout Bergen County, he said. 

"You’ll have longer periods where you have longer periods of congestion," Luglio said. 

Luglio added that the applicant's traffic impact study failed to include three critical intersections:  

  • New Milford Ave. and Kinderkamack Rd. 
  • Main St. and Boulevard
  • Madison Ave. and Boulevard.  
It is Luglio's position that traffic generated by this proposed development will be coming to and from the direction of these intersections and, therefore, it is necessary to include them in traffic counts. Additionally, he said that in order for the study to provide an accurate picture of what roadways would be most affected, Shop Rite should provide zip codes of their customers in order to determine directional impact. 

"Adding more traffic won't break the system," Luglio said. "It will exacerbate an already congested situation."

Addressing questions posed by Board member Joe Loonam regarding increased vehicular traffic and pedestrian safety in the area of the High School, Luglio said that with the appropriate safety precautions in place, such as sidewalks and crosswalks, safety should not be an issue. He cited examples of schools being located in industrial neighborhoods with truck traffic where there are no accidents. 

"There is no direct correlation with adding vehicles to having accidents," Luglio testified. "You could have significant increase in traffic and no accidents." 

In response to New Milford resident Gene Murray's question regarding the lack of growth factored into the traffic volumes, Luglio said that the test is, "What will traffic be like when it opens?" Long-range views of traffic are not taken into consideration in the preparation of traffic studies, Luglio said. 

New Milford resident Nick Damelio asked if the impact to emergency services response time was part of the study. Luglio said response time for emergency services is never factored into this kind of study. 
    
SOD member John Rutledge summed up Luglio's position on the traffic impact caused by the proposed development when he asked Luglio, "So, you’re saying it will work, maybe not perfectly, but it will work?"

Luglio said that the outcome of his study was that the site can handle the proposed traffic increase, although he would like to see the addition of traffic counts from the three critical intersections he cited.      
 
The next meeting of the New Milford Zoning Board is Tuesday, August 13. 


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