Parkway Median Guardrail Placed

COURT HOUSE — Just in time for the Memorial Day Weekend influx of visitors, a metal guardrail barrier has been installed on the Garden State Parkway median strip through Court House.
It is the first part of major renovations announced in April by First District legislators Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matt Milam.
Those guardrails, placed to provide a barrier to prevent vehicles from crossing the grass strip, begin at Shellbay Avenue intersection, Exit 6 and extend to Exit 12, in the vicinity of the county’s Crest haven Complex and Technical High School.
Two fatalities have occurred, the first in December 2008, and more recently on April 17 as vehicles careened across the open grass median and crashed into traffic in the opposite lane.
Also planned for the southern section of the parkway is:
• Installation of an overhead warning sign at Exit 0. (By end of summer)
• Repair rumble strips at Exit 0. (Beginning of summer)
• Push for the overpass project at exits 9, 10, and 11 to be completed one year earlier.
“For the sake of our residents and the visitors we absolutely must complete these projects in a timely fashion too many lives have been lost and too many people have been injured to do anything less. Executive Director Gutierrez- Scacetti has focused resources and energy in order to make this a top priority for the Turnpike Authority. This is a matter of life and death and we need to get these improvements accomplished as soon as possible,” stated Van Drew in an April release.
“After the most recent death it has become glaringly apparent that these issues most be addressed. The southern end of the Parkway has been traditionally underserved and it is about time we are getting these improvements,” Milam stated in that same release.
“For too long the most southern end of the parkway has been a forgotten place. These most recent accidents have made it brutally clear that these improvements are absolutely necessary,” stated Albano.