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Representatives from the New Jersey Department of Transportation [DOT] and NJ Transit officials met with city officials Friday to discuss a plan that would permanently close access between Main Street and Memorial Drive at the intersection of Summerfield Avenue.

The closure dovetails with a county project that will reconfigure the traffic pattern of Memorial Drive — commonly referred to as a “road diet” — from four lanes down to two between Route 33 on the Neptune border and Munroe Avenue. The remaining city-owned portion of Memorial Drive is already a two-lane street.

The plan is to close Summerfield Avenue to pedestrian and vehicular traffic and to repave a side road between Summerfield and Munroe avenue to allow access between the two [shown at right].

City officials oppose the closure, one of a list of proposed DOT improvements.

There are 12 intersections along Memorial Drive with railroad crossings in Asbury Park, three  have traffic signals [Springwood, Bangs and Asbury avenues], one has a blinking light [Third Avenue] and the rest have stop signs. Sewall Avenue dead-ends at Memorial Drive two blocks north.

The DOT’s holistic plan, based on a 2009 study, proposes closing First and Summerfield avenues, road surface improvements at Springwood, Third and Fourth avenue intersections and replacement of signals at the Sunset Avenue crossing, according to Todd Hirt, diagnostic team leader for the DOT’s Bureau of Railroad Engineering Services.

Hirt said a study done about five years ago shows the intersection of Summerfield Avenue is the least used crossing, has the highest incidence of car accidents and the lowest amount of pedestrians who cross at that location, and the DOT is trying to limit train exposure as much as possible.

The plan would curb off the west side of the tracks and a fence would be installed between Bangs and Monroe avenues, Hirt said.

But city officials claim the closure would affect the fire department’s ability to effectively respond to calls within the southwest quadrant of the city and may increase a perceived racial divide that exists on East and West sides of the train tracks, which run north to south parallel to Memorial Drive the entire length of the city.

“I think a fence sends the wrong message,” City Manager John “Jack” Kelly said. “It walls off the southwest quadrant. I don’t see how the benefits outweigh the negative. I truly do not.”

Kelly requested the DOT provide data that shows Summerfield has the highest incidence of motor vehicle accidents in relation to other intersections, and what the margin of difference is between the incidence at that crossing in relation to the city’s other 11 other crossings.

City Councilman John Moor said redevelopment in the city has increased the number of homeowners and summer tourists, thereby increasing vehicular traffic, which spurred a discussion of whether the figures from the 2009 figures are still applicable.

Asbury Park Fire Department Battalion Chief Raymond Dilello said the fire department responds to an average of 2,000 calls to the southwest quadrant alone. With increased vehicular traffic in recent years, closing Summerfield Avenue would increase traffic down nearby Munroe and Bangs avenues, leaving Asbury and Springwood avenues as the only other route options — and those streets are already heavily used.

“It would take seconds off our response time, and doesn’t take the future needs of the city into consideration,” Dilello said.

The department does not have another firehouse on the west side of the city.

Members of the Asbury Park City Council gave the county the OK in May to reconfigure the traffic pattern on Memorial Drive. During a presentation given before the vote, Fred Passeggio, principal engineer for the Monmouth County Division of Engineering and Traffic Safety, outlined the county project but the closure of Summerfield Avenue was never brought up.

Moor, who was not aware of the proposed closure prior to the Friday discussion, questioned why the closure was not addressed during the presentation Passeggio made in May. Passeggio said it was not addressed because no one asked about it.

“How can I ask a question about something I don’t know about?” Moor said.

Hirt said he and other individuals from the DOT have had several meetings in the past with City Engineer Joe Cunha about the project, and therefore any breakdown in communication remains at the city level.

Cunha, who was not at the meeting but did send a representative from the DPW in his stead, told the Sun while he has discussed this project with DOT representatives, he never gave any approval on the project.

“I’ve spoken to members of the police and fire departments, and we are all in agreement that this is not a good idea,” Cunha said. “Federal grant funding urgency on the county’s end brought this issue to the forefront.”

Passeggio said the city stands to lose $1 million in funds for the roadway and rail intersection upgrades if they do not close the intersection.

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