Woodbine Applies for DOT Grants

BOROUGH OF WOODBINE PRESS RELEASE:
WOODBINE — Mayor William Pikolycky is pleased to announce that the Borough of Woodbine has made two applications to New Jersey Department of Transportation Local Aid Program for two applications totaling approximately $1 million.
The first, in the amount of $438,489 is for the next phase of Woodbine’s bikeway.
This shared use path would be an 8-foot wide bicycle/pedestrian trail constructed within the street right-of-way on both Heilprin Avenue and Webster Street. This phase will link the main bikeway to both the community school complex and provide a portion of the bicycle/ pedestrian path along Webster that will be necessary as a future connection to the approved bikeway being designed along the Cape May Seashore Line and funded with NJDOT 2009 Bikeway funds.
This is the Shared Pathway element of the Borough of Woodbine Local Bicycle and Pedestrian Planning Assistance Study. Previous elements of the Gateway and Pedestrian Enhancements, Bicycle Routes and Sidewalk Network; portions of the study have been complete using a variety NJDOT funding sources. The Study proposes a shared use path to provide an off-road bicycle and pedestrian connection from the Woodbine Community School Complex to Lincoln Park, which are frequent destinations for residents. The Community School Complex also includes the Woodbine Community Center and the Woodbine Branch of the Cape May County Library. Lincoln Park is the main recreation complex of the Borough with basketball, tennis, baseball and playground equipment for all age brackets. Adjacent to Lincoln Park are the Woodbine Community Center and Social Services Center. Additionally, it is proposed that the path will extend along Webster Street east to the Webster Street entrance to the Woodbine Developmental Center.
The path would be installed from the Woodbine Developmental Center driveway on Webster Street continue west on the north side of Webster Street and then north on the east side of Heilprin Avenue. The path would terminate at the existing sidewalk on Heilprin Avenue and Grant Avenue, where there is a bus stop and is directly across DeHirsch Avenue and Route 550 from Lincoln Park. The total length of the recommended path is approximately 3,200 feet (0.60 mi.).
The shared path could also serve the community by creating a walking and bicycling loop for residents and employees of the Woodbine Development Center. The path would connect to the Woodbine Bikeway system that extends the length of the Borough on the old rail right-of-way along Route 550 from Belleplain State Forest to the border of Dennis Township, with a spur bikeway from Route 550 along the Cape May Seashore Lines excursion rail line again terminating at a border with Dennis Township. If the main bikeway was extended into Dennis Township it would eventually connect with South Seaville and the Middle Township Bikeway in Cape May Court House. The spur bikeway if extended would go to Dennisville.
The second application, for $547, 903, is for Town Center Revitalization Phase V: Streetlighting and related amenities.
These proposed additions to the Town Center Streetscape Program (Phase V) include additional streetscape improvements from Franklin Street to Bryant Street, the northern terminus of the Town Center. This fifth of six proposed phases is designed to complete all improvements to this northern half of the commercial district with the installation of electric service, decorative street lighting, landscaping, mid-block bump-outs and an additional crosswalk. Rather than phase the Town Center streetscape project by totally completing one or two blocks at a time, Woodbine made improvements throughout the Washington Street area one element at a time, starting with curbing, sidewalks, driveway aprons and handicapped curb cuts. This was following with similar improvements to DeHirsch and Adams Avenues and Franklin Street that also included paver crosswalks. The most recently completed improvements were paver crosswalks and intersections on Washington Avenue. Three of six phases are complete. Phase IV was the subject of the Borough’s Transportation Enhancement application last month. From its inception the Woodbine Town Center Revitalization was estimated at $3M and with half the improvements completed the Borough is on target to complete the project for that original cost.
“As we apply for funding to continue both of these ongoing projects, we hope that NJDOT will look as favorably upon these applications as they have on those preceding them, and hope to move forward with both of these worthwhile initiatives,” concluded Mayor Pikolycky.