7/19/17

By: Joseph L. Kuchie

Donald Applegate

SOUTH AMBOY – Former Councilman Donald Applegate attended last Wednesday’s South Amboy business meeting to discuss the current conditions of lower Main Street.

Applegate used the word “disaster” to describe the driving conditions getting into South Amboy, and urged the city to act before a major accident occurs.

“Lower Main is a total disaster. It’s the main road coming in and out of town,” Applegate said. “There’s going to be a major accident there coming down, especially down with the rumble strips. The cars just shoot right across the road in the rain. It’s horrendous.”

City Engineer Mark Rasimowicz explained that Middlesex County had taken over the street repairs as part of a $2 million project, but construction was unlikely to begin until next year.

“The county is doing a total reconstruction project of Broadway including the intersection and the traffic signal there and it’s going down Main Street stopping right before the Radford Ferry Signal,” Rasimowicz said. “That’s a project that the township was doing as part of Radford Ferry which the county took over.”

City Engineer
Mark Rasimowicz

“My understanding is that there is a hold up with federal funds that they are dealing with and there’s a process they have to go through in order to get that project going,” he continued. “Last I spoke to them they were hoping to be out to bid in the end of this year which really puts it into construction next year.”

Rasimowicz also noted that the city has received complaints from their First Aid about trying to navigate emergency vehicles through the area. He explained that while they can work with the county to get patch work done, they can’t push them to do a complete pave without putting the construction project at risk.

“We’ve been on the county to try to do patches or whatever they can do,” he said. “If we push for them to come in and mill and repave that road, they’re not going to reconstruct it, and the reconstruction project that is about $2 million is going to go out the window. They aren’t going to spend half a million dollars to repave and then come back.”

Council President Mickey Gross was not in attendance, but the meeting was run by Councilwoman Christine Noble. All other council members were in attendance.