Garden State Parkway is ‘downright ugly’

[dogg57]

Dale Gerhard photo GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP — As the Garden State Parkway widening project inches closer to Atlantic County — the project was completed between mileposts 63 and 80 earlier this year — some residents said they were unhappy with the planned expansion.
“I think it’s going to be downright ugly,” Somers Point resident Mary Purcell said. “I’m really very upset about it.”
Purcell was one of about two dozen area residents who attended an informal public information session about the project Thursday at Richard Stockton College.
The session was organized by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority as a means to answer any questions that may still remain about the $894 million project.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_5b3d27a4-bf09-11e0-90a2-001cc4c002e0.html

 

[this_is_nascar]

I guess I don't understand why the Parkway really needed to be widened. Everytime that I've been on it, the traffic flowed very well. Sure, it gets busy sometimes, but not enough to warrant a widening effort, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[PancoastDrifter]

All the buffer zones towns had done planning with for 30 years - gone.

 

[Boyd]

I don't know, if it moves some of the traffic off the local roads and onto the Parkway then that might be a good thing. I just now came home from Belleplain and crossed Rt 49 on Hunters Mill road. Had to wait a couple minutes for a break in the Southbound traffic - almost all the cars had Pennsylvania license plates.

 

[turtle]

News clip earlier this week stated that the widening from mm 30 to mm 63 will begin sometime this fall and be completed in spring of 2013. Stockton College hosted an open house for public comment on the project. Project manager mentioned that it was necessary to widen because there is approximately an hour during each day when traffic slows to 3/4 its normal speed due to "congestion"....
Yep, that's good reasoning. Can't have folks traveling the speed limit and arriving late.

 

[46er]

The more lanes they add, the more dangerous that road becomes, and the fatalaties bear that out. I use that road ONLY when I have no other option. Too many folks in a rush to lose their money in AC or angry ones heading home after losing it.

It used to be a nice road.

http://www.nycroads.com/roads/garden-state/

 

[46er]

The asphalt will soon be flowing.

http://www.app.com/article/20110907...en-Parkway?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

 

[dragoncjo]

I avoid the road at all cost along with the expressway. My parents drive down the shore alot and I always tell them never take those roads as its either young kids driving them half sh_t faced or people half asleep from the casinos. Its the tourist route.

 

[46er]

Excellent advice. I only use it if there is a need to. In most cases, it's just not worth the stress. It's more the commuter route than tourist, although both co-mingle during the summer months. I rode a van, sometimes drove, to and from my place of work for 22 years. I am prematurely gray in what hair I have left, and my middle finger begins to twitch whenever I drive past a GSP entrance ramp.

 

[dogg57]

The N.J. Turnpike Authority has awarded nearly $150 million in construction contracts to begin the second phase of its Garden State Parkway widening program.
Action was taken to begin construction of a third lane in each direction between exits 48 and 63 by the authority board at a meeting Wednesday, according to documents provided by the authority.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/...cle_0ad8a948-da4b-11e0-8ea7-001cc4c03286.html

 

[Pine Baron]

and my middle finger begins to twitch whenever I drive past a GSP entrance ramp.

Good one!