For those of you who travel through the Marlton Circle, here is the plan for improvements.
http://www.twp.evesham.nj.us/njdot_70-73.htm
Guy
http://www.twp.evesham.nj.us/njdot_70-73.htm
Guy
Marlton Circle
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
Wow, this is "progress"... 
I've been following this on and off since I moved to Medford in 1994 but haven't heard anything for a year or so. But I figured it was imminent and have discovered new ways to get everywhere I need to go while staying FAR AWAY from that whole area.
Are they estimating a completion date? That's going to be a traffic nightmare. For the most part I only use Rt 73 between the Betsy Ross bridge and the turnpike entrance. Anything South of there is just an exercise in frustration for me, the area is really over-built IMO.
I've been following this on and off since I moved to Medford in 1994 but haven't heard anything for a year or so. But I figured it was imminent and have discovered new ways to get everywhere I need to go while staying FAR AWAY from that whole area.
Are they estimating a completion date? That's going to be a traffic nightmare. For the most part I only use Rt 73 between the Betsy Ross bridge and the turnpike entrance. Anything South of there is just an exercise in frustration for me, the area is really over-built IMO.
I just spent a couple minutes looking at those plans... maybe I missed something? But it appears this project favors Rt 73 in a big way by taking it over Rt 70 at full speed with cloverleaf ramps. OTOH, traveling on Rt 70 W (for example) you will need to go through 2 stoplights in order to get on Rt 73 S or one stoplight to go North on 73. Or if you just want to continue straight through on Rt 70 W you will also have to go through 2 stoplights.
I thought this intersection was going to be more like the Rt 73 / Rt 38 intersection where neither direction of traffic would need to stop. I guess the site isn't big enough for that? Or maybe it's a budget thing? Either way, it won't be much if any improvement if you're just trying to stay on Rt 70 (unless I'm missing something?)...
I thought this intersection was going to be more like the Rt 73 / Rt 38 intersection where neither direction of traffic would need to stop. I guess the site isn't big enough for that? Or maybe it's a budget thing? Either way, it won't be much if any improvement if you're just trying to stay on Rt 70 (unless I'm missing something?)...
Adding stoplights to me like is not improving things that much. The 73, 38 design you would think would have been the logical way to go.
Goodbye Olga's.
The circle that really needs to be addressed is the 70, 206 circle, the backups stretch in both directions. I avoid it at all costs, taking old red lion road going east, hawkins road from carranza coming back home.
Goodbye Olga's.
The circle that really needs to be addressed is the 70, 206 circle, the backups stretch in both directions. I avoid it at all costs, taking old red lion road going east, hawkins road from carranza coming back home.
I'm sure you're right Guy, I never actually looked at what was happening there, I just knew there was a big project coming. Oh well, forget that whole area for the next few years. Rt 73 is certainly the shortest route from my home to our production center in Frankford, but I stopped using it last year - I just can't stand that road for some reason.
I guess the Rt 70 stoplights won't be as lengthy as the current ones since Rt 73 thru traffic flies overhead. But I'm sure there will still be enough to create traffic jams at peak periods.
I guess the Rt 70 stoplights won't be as lengthy as the current ones since Rt 73 thru traffic flies overhead. But I'm sure there will still be enough to create traffic jams at peak periods.
I grew up right there by the Sunoco on the left in the map, and as as a kid we would drive down 73 and it was so dark. The Byron Robert’s apple orchards lined 73 from the Sunoco almost to Mt. Laurel, and south on 73 it was dark from the circle to Kresson, and then again from there to the Berlin Circle. The first building that I remember coming to after Kresson was the State Police Barracks at the Berlin Circle. The Byron Robert’s orchard warehouse was located where Whole Foods is now, and Cropwell Road crossed 73 right there and was dirt. They sold apples to the public and we would stop there often. Byron Roberts was found dead in his car at the then 38/73 circle. Cropwell was altered in later years and ends on Lincoln Drive now.
There use to be an old wooden water tower right along 73 about where the movie theater parking lot is now. I had the old steel pipe on top or at the bottom that swiveled. The orchards would use it for various reasons to acquire water. It looked like the old tower you would see in a train photo. That actually was there until the movie theater was built. I regret not photographing that.
In later years a Burger Chef was built across from the Sunoco shown on the left, and Mrs. London’s palm reading moved into the house right across 73 from the Sunoco shown in the map. It is now Canals Liquors. Mrs. London and her husband went to Florida and her house mysteriously burned down with heating oil all over the inside. I sat on the pumps at the Sunoco and watched it burn. It was rebuilt and an she eventually moved and an animal hospital took over.
I remember when 295 ended at 73 when you came north. There were barricades there to keep you from heading into the woods. We traveled 295 every Saturday to visit my grandmother in Repaupo so it sticks in my head that they were there.. The section from 73 north opened on 4/26/1967. I have a 4/251967 Courier article showing an aerial view of 73 and 295 and it also shows the construction of the 73 and 38 intersection. It was sent to me by John Flack who is without a doubt the most knowledgeable historian of modern Marlton, especially in the circle area.
Guy
There use to be an old wooden water tower right along 73 about where the movie theater parking lot is now. I had the old steel pipe on top or at the bottom that swiveled. The orchards would use it for various reasons to acquire water. It looked like the old tower you would see in a train photo. That actually was there until the movie theater was built. I regret not photographing that.
In later years a Burger Chef was built across from the Sunoco shown on the left, and Mrs. London’s palm reading moved into the house right across 73 from the Sunoco shown in the map. It is now Canals Liquors. Mrs. London and her husband went to Florida and her house mysteriously burned down with heating oil all over the inside. I sat on the pumps at the Sunoco and watched it burn. It was rebuilt and an she eventually moved and an animal hospital took over.
I remember when 295 ended at 73 when you came north. There were barricades there to keep you from heading into the woods. We traveled 295 every Saturday to visit my grandmother in Repaupo so it sticks in my head that they were there.. The section from 73 north opened on 4/26/1967. I have a 4/251967 Courier article showing an aerial view of 73 and 295 and it also shows the construction of the 73 and 38 intersection. It was sent to me by John Flack who is without a doubt the most knowledgeable historian of modern Marlton, especially in the circle area.
Guy
Hmm.... who purchased his land? Sounds a little suspicious
That's some great history Guy. Lots of people have told me about how rural that area used to be until relatively recent times. Since I've been in the area (14 years) it's quite disturbing to see the amount of development which has occured. I remember the first time I drove into the area I got off 295 in Mt Laurel and the Home Depot shopping plaza on Nixon drive was under construction.
I was in Medford a few days ago and noticed they still haven't started work on the "mega mall" on Rt 70 yet, I wonder what's up with that?
The design was probably influenced by the casinos. Easier access from Philly to AC.
Steve
"They believe a simple intersection with traffic-sensitive lights timed to turn green in only one direction at a time would be the better solution."
Hmmmm.......might be more interesting if they all turned green at the same time.
Hmmmm.......might be more interesting if they all turned green at the same time.
old times
I remember some of this... the orchards & packing facility at Green Tree & Rt73, a large dairy farm on the other corner. For a period (when Lincoln Prop bought the land) there were abandoned farm houses on the south side of Rt 73 - I vauguely remember some hippies squatting in one on Cropwell Road (across from a farm house - family I think was named Haines). Someone recently bought me the book, "Last Child in The Woods" - my woods were that area south and west of the Marlton Circle ... 35 years ago.
I remember some of this... the orchards & packing facility at Green Tree & Rt73, a large dairy farm on the other corner. For a period (when Lincoln Prop bought the land) there were abandoned farm houses on the south side of Rt 73 - I vauguely remember some hippies squatting in one on Cropwell Road (across from a farm house - family I think was named Haines). Someone recently bought me the book, "Last Child in The Woods" - my woods were that area south and west of the Marlton Circle ... 35 years ago.
I lived off of Kresson near Cropwell for five years in the 1980's. I think I remember Mrs. London's, but perhaps I am thinking of the next one north on 73, near Church. Sounds like she was the victim of some local resentment.
The area has changed so much even in the time since I left. Back then it felt like you were in the pines right after you crossed 73 on Cropwell/Cooper Rd.
We came from Rhode Island, where they had "rotaries" at the junctions of some major roads. I regarded them as quaint and horrendously anachronistic relics of a simpler, slower time. When we arrived in NJ I recall thinking "Oh no, they have them here too." We were midwesterners before, and the only circles out there are the sun, the moon, and the donuts. I really couldn't believe people were barreling into these constructions in actual moving vehicles.
I was just reading a Wall Street Journal article a few days ago which cited a recent study about "roundabouts" and suggested that more should be built to replace regular intersections. Can't find that at the moment, but here's something similar...
http://www.drivers.com/article/334/
Once again, i still cannot reason why they cannot go with rt.73, rt.38 design, no traffic lights there!!!
Jim
Jim
I can see that. The rotary forces everyone to slow down and merge at least twice. But have they studied incidents of road rage near rotaries? I bet not!
I can see that. The rotary forces everyone to slow down and merge at least twice. But have they studied incidents of road rage near rotaries? I bet not!
If the Marlton circle was today the way it was when it was truly a circle, road rage would happen every day there. it was brutal on Saturday mornings in the summer.
Guy
Jim, I cannot figure out why there is so much space between the opening salvo of your post and your signature. Do you hit the space bar ten times before your name?
bob