Sandford Avenue bridge reconstruction

This sign was my first clue the bridge was being reconstructed.

Plainfield's location as a transportation crossroads helped make it a regional market town in the days before the insult of highway strip malls and regional shopping centers.

And that was facilitated by the large number of crossings (20) of the Green Brook, which separates Plainfield and North Plainfield, Union and Somerset Counties.

Coming home the 'back way' from Watchung Square Mall recently, I came upon the roadblock pictured above, the first I was aware that the Sandford Avenue bridge was being reconstructed. (Later I noticed a sign on East Front Street -- at the foot of Westerveld Avenue -- announcing a detour via Richmond Street.)

Though signs do not indicate a completion date, if previous experience is a guide it will probably be late spring of 2011.

Since the bridges benefit both counties, I have been told the arrangement for maintenance and reconstruction is that all bridges from Somerset Street east are Union County's responsibility and those from Madison Avenue west are Somerset County's. That would mean Union County is doing the work.

Unresolved is the fate of the Geraud Avenue bridge, which has been closed for many years after structural damage from flooding. The two councils and county officials have had several meetings but no final decision has been reached about what to do, leaving the street essentially a dead end (if crude and unsightly) in each community.

Equipment used to strip away old  road surface.

If you're curious, the TWENTY bridge crossings of the Green Brook are, from west to east: Jefferson Avenue, Rock Avenue, Clinton Avenue, West End Avenue, Geraud Avenue (closed), Sycamore Avenue, Washington Avenue, Grove Street, Madison Avenue, Somerset Street, Watchung Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, Westerveld Avenue, Sandford Avenue, Norwood Avenue, Farragut Road, Netherwood Avenue, Leland Avenue, Raymond Avenue and Terrill Road.

There are also FIFTEEN railroad bridges on the Raritan Valley Line of NJT, which passes through Plainfield: Rock Avenue, Clinton Avenue, Grant Avenue, Plainfield Avenue, Liberty Street, New Street, Central Avenue, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, Watchung Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, Richmond Street, Berckman Street, Leland Avenue and Terrill Road.

These have all been reconstructed and repainted, as a result of public pressure on New Jersey Transit by longtime Plainfield activist (and current Board of Ed member) Rasheed Abdul-Haqq.

(It would be nice if NJT got around to taking down the many detour signs still left at various points around town.)

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Original Interstate 287 would have bisected Plainfield

Detail from 1995 plan for Interstates in NY metro area.

Reporting from an adventure down the Plainfield rabbit hole: original plans for Interstate 287 would have had it bisecting Plainfield.

While checking details on this weekend's closing of Route 78 for lane shifts during construction, I happened upon the Wikipedia article for the interstate (see here).

Besides giving an historical overview (it was originally planned by NJ as a high-speed state highway bypassing Route 22 in 1927 -- when 22 was known as NJ Route 29, I believe), and re-imagined in the 1950s as a result of the passage of Eisenhower's legislation funding the construction of a federally-funded interstate system of military highways as part of a strategic defense plan against possible war with Russia.

Sign designating the (1927) proposed NJ Route 11.

If you look closely, you will see Route 287 would have sprung from the Turnpike near Metuchen, traveling northward, apparently through the Plainfield Country Club and along Woodland Avenue (thus bisecting Plainfield) before crossing Route 22 near the Sears store and going over the Watchung hills near Bonnie Burn Road.

Some plan, huh?

Wonder what ever happened to it?

The complete 1955 NY-NJ metro Interstate proposal.
(Click to enlarge.)

---

• Wikipedia: "Interstate 78 in New Jersey"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Front Street barricaded

PSE&G crew working at Front and Park, 6 AM Sunday.

Barricades were up and prowl cars blocked the roadways on Front Street in Plainfield early Sunday morning from Watchung Avenue to Madison Avenue and on Park Avenue at Second Street and the Somerset Street entrance to the municipal parking lots.

I had seen PSE&G crews on West Front Street yesterday afternoon, in front of the first of the Park-Madison retail buildings. Shops west of the Dunkin' Donuts were in darkness as the crews worked, so I thought it might be electrical.

However, going out for the Sunday papers, I found the downtown barricaded. Parking in one of lots and trudging over to the corner, I came upon a PSE&G crew at a large excavation smack in the middle of the intersection of Park Avenue and Front Street. No one knew how soon the work would be finished.

If you plan to go out to Route 22, use Watchung Avenue or plan an alternate route.

You have been forewarned.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Speed humps? What are your suggested locations?

Today's Courier features a story (see here) on the new speed humps on Kensington Avenue, promoted by Councilors Cory Storch and Rashid Burney and noted previously on their blogs (see here and here).

Speed humps (see more here) are 'traffic-calming' devices designed to slow down speeding traffic. They are placed at intervals along stretches of city streets that have no stop signs or traffic lights for considerable distances, a condition that some argue encourages speeding.

For years, there have been complaints from various neighborhoods about speeding along various city streets.

Councilors Storch and Burney hope that Kensington Avenue is only the opening salvo in a war against speeding.

Some cities, such as Phoenix, Arizona, have speed hump programs that formalize a process in which citizens may petition to have the traffic-calming devices installed in their neighborhoods. The city's website also explains the positives and negatives of speed humps in helping citizens decide if they want to petition for them.

What do you think about speed humps, and having a speed hump program for Plainfield?

What are your suggestions of streets that might be considered?

Remember, they need to be --

• Entirely within the city of Plainfield
• Long stretches of road unimpeded by stop signs or traffic signals
• Places you know that motorists speed

Just use the 'Comments' link below to offer your suggestions.

---

• Courier: "Speed humps installed on Kensington Avenue; some displeased"
• Cory Storch: "Life just got safer on Kensington Avenue"
• Rashid Burney: "And then...there were speed humps"
• Wikipedia: "Speed humps"
• City of Phoenix (AZ): "Speed hump program"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Plainfield shocker: Somerset Street milled, paved!

As of yesterday, drivers entering Plainfield via Somerset Street no longer need endure the bone-jarring corduroy road which the block from the North Plainfield line to Front Street has been for decades.

In a SINGLE WORK DAY, the stretch of street about which I and many others have complained was reborn.

What was so hard about that?

(Make a mental note though, that it was only milled and paved, not rebuilt as some think it needed. We'll see soon enough if this will fail like the South Avenue work done a decade ago, when a lack of funds caused ITS reconstruction to be skipped in favor of a cosmetic mill-and-pave.)

Where was the mayor? This was an occasion TRULY WORTHY of Her Honor doing a star turn -- say a ceremonial snapshot in a red blazer and atop a road roller.

Could have been part of the new communications strategy.

Maybe even some free donuts for the workers and passersby.

Coulda... shoulda... woulda...

At any rate, enjoy your new silky smooth roll into town!

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

What's with the unfinished roads?

Mayor Robinson-Briggs put President Obama's
Stimulus money to work on a road-to-nowhere.

While bumping down one of Plainfield's begun-but-unfinished road projects Thursday evening, I came upon a reader out walking his dog.

'You know, the asphalt plants will be shutting down for the winter in a couple of weeks', he said, as he scuffled some of the gravel lying in the roadway (he knows about this stuff because of his job responsibilities), 'When do you think they're ever gonna finish this street?'

When, indeed.

After the embarrassing false starts on Kensington and Netherwood Avenues in 2008, Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs' administration tried to get things back on track in the 2009 roadwork season, with less-than-optimal results.

I noticed at the Drake House reopening last weekend that Geraud Avenue, on which I had to park because of the crowds, is STILL UNFINISHED. You may recall this as the road-to-nowhere project on which Robinson-Briggs used President Obama's stimulus money (see my story here), as opposed to say a truly worthwhile project like Somerset Street from Front to the North Plainfield line.

When covering the Vastine meet-and-greet the other night, I had to park in the rut along the new curbing on Kensington Avenue -- another STILL UNFINISHED street.

Checking further, I noted that Cedarbrook Road and Brook Lane are also STILL UNFINISHED, as they were weeks ago, when Gov. Jon Corzine came to campaign in Plainfield (an event for which Mayor Robinson-Briggs was, as they say, 'otherwise engaged'). See my story on the road situation then here.

Weeks after Gov. Corzine's visit,
Cedar Brook Road has yet to be paved.

Seems the ONLY projects to date that are actually finished are West 8th Street and Netherwood Avenue.

Now I know Mayor Sharon has a lot on her plate just now, what with the CFO personnel mess at City Hall and the Seniors unhappy with her over being overdue on moving into the new Senior Center, and Her Honor fretting over how to face the voters in the two upcoming candidate forums, but as far as I know, no one held a gun to her head to make her take this job.

With winter coming on and roadwork season coming to an end, you'd think Mayor Robinson-Briggs wouldn't want voters to be reminded just by driving down the street that she had let them down again.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

---

• Plainfield Today, 9/1/09: "Plainfield's Stimulus money reaches dead end"
• Plainfield Today, 9/19/09: "Welcome to Plainfield, Gov. Corzine"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Plainfield's Stimulus money reaches dead end

Crew at work on Geraud Avenue, funded by federal Stimulus monies.

President Obama's stimulus money reached a dead end in Plainfield even as authorities are concerned that the Mob may seek a cut of the stimulus pie (see story here).

The dead end?

Geraud Avenue, which begins where the Drake House sits on West Front Street and continues (now) for one block, to end at the bridge into North Plainfield which has been closed except to foot traffic for a decade now.

The leafy street, which connects the truly dead-end Brookside Place (and its 19 homes) to Front Street, gets barely a trickle of traffic compared to the thousands of vehicles a day that traverse the stretch of Somerset Street from Front Street and Park Avenue to the North Plainfield line.

Map shows Brookside Place's connection through Geraud Avenue.

Geraud Avenue work, with Drake House at right.

The Geraud Avenue bridge has been closed to traffic since 1999.

Though the teeth-rattling Somerset Street block is a memorable entrance to the Queen City, it is not 'grand' by any stretch of the imagination -- being more a rude reminder that you are leaving smoothly paved Somerset Street in North Plainfield.

The joke here is that among the 'shovel-ready' projects the Robinson-Briggs administration listed on its 'Stimulus Watch' web pages is Somerset Street (see here).

So how come the dead-end street gets top billing over the busy portal to Plainfield?

Thank God we don't have to worry about the Mob in Plainfield, but do I have to spell it out?

Dead-ends as a metaphor for this Administration's priorities?

Nah!

---

• Plainfield Today --
• "Plainfield's 'Stimulus Tracking' website debuts?"
  
• "Geraud Avenue: A bridge over troubled waters"

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Plainfield's 'PLAN AHEAD' policy?

Plainfield's lack of a 'plan ahead' mindset is on display this week with the repaving of Watchung Avenue from the North Plainfield line to 5th Street.

The work caps the project which has included installing Belgian block curbing, ADA-compliant corner cuts and (partial) new sidewalks.

Some merchants were surprised and a little miffed that the repaving commenced without any warning, displacing on-street parking while traffic was shifted to new patterns for the duration.

In addition, traffic snarls ensued as southbound traffic on Watchung was shunted west on North Avenue forcing folks onto Second Street and creating gridlock in the entire area.

The plan, which was developed years ago in conjunction with the UEZ-funded streetscape improvements on Front Street, was dusted off to take advantage of federal stimulus funding. Unlike the Front Street segment, though, the city made no effort to circulate flyers to affected merchants alerting them to upcoming phases of the work.

Roadwork, necessary as it is, is alway disruptive to someone, and sometimes all that is needed is to show a little common courtesy (such as flyers, or signs on light poles as with last summer's E'town water work).

The 'common courtesy' part is where Plainfield seems to fail to 'PLAN AHEAD'.

Everyone will be pleased when the work is done, some probably a little more than others.

But will the City learn from this project to do better when -- and if -- it gets to the Park Avenue phase which was also planned for way back when?

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Stuck in Plainfield

Sometimes the things that get stuck in Plainfield have nothing to do with Mayor Robinson-Briggs, Assemblyman Green, the Council or any other official. Or even politics, the schools, crime, corruption or code enforcement.

Sometimes the things that get stuck in Plainfield have to do with simply not paying attention.

As in............

As in the driver who didn't pay attention to the height warning on the NJT underpass on Clinton Avenue this past week.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (2)

Plainfield's City Administrator Marc Dashield joins other local New Jersey officials in complaining that ARRA (federal stimulus money) dollars are not trickling down to local road repair projects (see here).

The bone of contention is roads wholly contained within a community.

This should come as no surprise considering Obama's stimulus plan drives the money to the states to parcel out, and New Jersey, like most states, has highway issues of its own to address that may or may not impact local street and road repairs.

In Plainfield's case, as I previously pointed out (see here), the question really is why Assemblyman Jerry Green hasn't muscled Plainfield into line for money -- at least for the South Avenue reconstruction project, since it is part of Route 28, the state highway that runs through most of the Assemblyman's district.

Part of the problem is that the roads money is subject to stiffer conditions than localities are used to, where most monies traditionally come through HUD's CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) program, whose criteria are notoriously subject to manipulation and evasion at the county level.

Among the conditions that towns like Plainfield would have to meet include having any environmental conditions addressed and permits in place. These real-life requirements cut through the smoke-and-mirrors of wish lists like that found on Plainfield's 'Stimulus' web pages (see here).

Speaking of which, do you even know how to find those web pages, let alone make sense of them?

As I pointed out when the subsite of the City's website was launched, the devil is in the details (see here). And that includes finding out what is going on with Plainfield's efforts to get ARRA stimulus funds.

Consider this: Plainfield's website no longer offers a site search capability, so you are on your own when trying to find pages not linked to by the menu in the left-hand column.

Once you find the pages (again, they are here), would you be surprised to learn they have not been updated since April 21st -- that is, when they were first put up? Online tools provide ways to discover how recently pages are updated, and you can verify my date by checking here.

You will not learn anything about Plainfield and the quest for ARRA stimulus dollars you did not know back in April by checking these pages, despite Mayor Robinson-Briggs' assertion on the pages themselves that --

...[o]ne of the purposes of this website is to provide a communication tool that will identify the funding opportunities available and the action taken by the City of Plainfield to secure funding. (Emphasis added.)

So the surprise here is NOT that Plainfield isn't getting its share of the Stimulus money. Or that Assemblyman Green hasn't wrangled money for Route 28 improvements throughout his district. Or that the Robinson-Briggs administration hasn't kept its Stimulus web pages up to date.

No, the surprise here is that the Ledger prints Mr. Dashield's smoke-and-mirrors comment without any serious investigation into his assertions.

And what, exactly, Plainfield has done to merit any ARRA dollars for road repairs.

Good luck finding out from the city's own information.

Should that be a surprise?

---

• Ledger: "Towns complain federal road money falls short"
• Plainfield Today --
• 6/10/09: "Mr. Dashield's (misleading) history lesson"
• 4/23/09: "Plainfield's Stimulus-tracking website launches"
• City of Plainfield: "Stimulus-tracking web pages"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Mr. Dashield's (misleading) history lesson

Work on South Avenue gets under way, June 2000.

Plainfield City Administrator Marc Dashield's presentation Monday updating the South Avenue road project contained a seriously misleading bit of history.

First though, if you haven't rattled your teeth driving down South Avenue recently, you should know that the Plainwood Square Merchants Association has been lobbying the city for some time to attend to the seriously deteriorating roadway between Woodland Avenue and Terrill Road.

Though the stretch in front of the greengrocer's was done using city equipment, the entire roadway needs to be rebuilt and resurfaced, a project beyond the capabilities of the DPW crews.

Dashield said (somehow these things never seem to be in writing) that he had researched the previous work done on South Avenue -- around 2002, he thought -- and had sought a legal opinion on suing the contractor for shoddy work, but that it didn't look like the city had a strong case.

Seems minor enough, but given the Robinson-Briggs' administration's propensity for blaming its problems on previous administrations (especially that of Al McWilliams), setting out the CORRECT history is called for.

The reason a lawsuit is unwise is that there was no shoddy work; the work was done exactly as specified.

Plainfield was about to lose a $600,000 grant for improvements to South Avenue when Al McWilliams took office in January 1998. The project, long advocated by the South Avenue merchants with Dairy Queen's Donna Albanese as the main point person, had been funded with an NJDOT grant and then the administration of mayor Mark Fury dropped the ball.

McWilliams, responding to the merchants' concerns, made the project an A-1 priority and put Pat Ballard Fox, his deputy city administrator for economic development to work on it immediately.

Mayor Al McWilliams and Plainwood Square merchants celebrate
the installation of gateway signage at Plainwood Square in 1999.

Originally conceived as roadway and storm sewer improvements, McWilliams and Ballard Fox reconceived it as a BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, with the roadway being the major component. Viewed through this lens, the goal became not only to improve the roadway and drainage, but to slow down the traffic that simply SPED THROUGH Plainfield on the way to someplace else and turn South Avenue into A SHOPPING DESTINATION.

Doing this involved getting the state to agree to a reduced speed limit (25 MPH) and to 'traffic-calming' measures that have been gaining ground in New Jersey cities for years. These mainly involved shortening the distance pedestrians have to navigate to get across busy traffic by putting 'bumpouts' in parts of the roadway reserved for parking.

The bumpouts have the effect of slowing traffic down, thus making it safer for pedestrians to step out and cross the street.

Additionally, as part of the Urban Enterprise Zone, the streetscape was improved with more appropriate street lights, banners and curbs and sidewalks.

The engineers determined that South Avenue was eventually going to need reconstruction; however, there simply was no money (or will on the part of the Council**) to fund a complete reconstruction at that time.

This left as the only option the milling and paving of the roadway. At the time, everyone knew that this was only a temporary resolution, and that eventually the roadway would have to be reconstructed.

But most people soon forgot about that as things appeared spanking new and the repaving gave the impression everything was hunky-dory.

Fast forward ten years (the work began in 2000), and we have the current situation, with the South Avenue merchants again having to take the lead as the current administration simply failed to review the history of the project (which had been supplied in Ballard Fox's transition memorandum of December, 2005) and finds itself in a reactive rather than proactive mode.

Which brings us to last evening's presentation.

Besides correcting the history of the situation, I have a question.

Since South Avenue is a state highway (Route 28), why isn't the city -- working through Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Plainfield) -- trying to get the state to fund all or most of the work?

Not long ago, NJDOT released a list of projects being funded with President Obama's stimulus money, but South Avenue, Plainfield's only state road, was not on the list.

Is that because the city didn't apply, because the Robinson-Briggs administration forgot that South Avenue is a state highway, or because the Assemblyman doesn't have the clout Plainfield needs?

**Councilors for the years 1999 and 2000 were Malcolm R. Dunn, Bob Ferraro, Adrian Mapp, Harold Mitchell, Joe Montgomery, Joe Scott Sr. and Liz Urquhart. A majority was unsympathetic or even hostile to the South Avenue project.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Corzine blowing smoke Plainfield's way?

Roadwork on Kenyon Avenue, November 2005.

Plainfielders may well wonder what's up with the Governor's press machine, which was in overdrive in putting out the word about the most recent round of DOT grants.

'Corzine: Massive road projects will put people to work', the Bergen Record trumpeted yesterday, reporting on the Gov's Friday press conference in Metuchen.

That's a good thing. So I paid attention. Maybe a little too much attention.

$78.75 million. 372 towns.

Do the math. That's about $213,000 per town. Now anyone who's been paying attention knows that paves darn little, and puts a few people to work for not very long.

Not to mention that the workers most likely won't be from the communities in which the money is spent, but from the communities in which the contractors draw their pool of laborers.

The final touch came when looking up the governor's list (see here), where we learn Plainfield got a grant of $239,161 for work on South Second Street.

Which, if memory serves me, Mayor Robinson-Briggs celebrated the completion of months ago (see the City's press release here).

While we are truly facing hard times, and Corzine is on the right track in insisting that putting people to work on infrastructure projects is going to be key in getting us out of the hole we're in, blowing smoke is no way to begin.

Facing an election in 2009, Corzine has to do better than this to maximize his chances.

---

• Courier: "Corzine announces $78.75M in transportation grants"
• Record: "Corzine: Massive road projects will put people to work"
• Office of the Governor: "DOT Grants List"

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Traffic Alert: Front and Grant

The traffic light at West Front Street and Grant Avenue has been out since at least Saturday AM, and is still not functioning.

Front Street traffic is being allowed uninterrupted passage through the intersection via a blinking yellow light.

North/South traffic on Grant and West End Avenues is being shunted via South Second Street and Green Brook Park/Myrtle Avenue.

Be forewarned if traveling in the area.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Bank robbers beware!

When I wrote a few days ago about the snarling of downtown traffic with the water main repairs (the snarls continue), I DIDN'T mention a bit of banter that passed between a cop and myself over the situation.

While talking about how many cop cars were tied up in monitoring the street openings and resultant traffic flow issues, I surmised bank robbers might have an advantage.

Not to worry, I was told, they'd wouldn't get away because they'd get stuck in traffic.

Think not? Read this interesting story of the outcome of a bank robbery in Edison yesterday.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Traffic snafus? Get used to it.

Yesterday was a lollapalooza in the ongoing work on the city's water mains.

Drivers at midday found it nearly impossible to navigate northbound or southbound in downtown, faced with the following obstacles --

• Southbound traffic on Central Avenue was blocked at West 2nd Street;
• Northbound and southbound traffic on Park Avenue was blocked between 2nd Street and North Avenue; and
• Northbound traffic on Watchung Avenue was blocked at East 5th Street

Hopefully no expectant mother in labor was waiting for a bus to Trinitas to deliver.

So many police cars were seen tied up at these and various other intersections that I noticed a street opening by the same crews at Madison and Stelle Avenues was being covered by a shiny black unmarked police car.

"Get used to it," I was advised by one officer I stopped to chat with, "looks like it will continue at least through next month."

The ubiquitous crews in the tan trucks of J. Fletcher Creamer & Son are working on contract for New Jersey American Water (formerly the locally-owned Elizabethtown Water, whose foreign ownership is disguised by the new corporate name).

Monday was the first I noticed any kind of a public sign about the work that has been going on for about two months now -- at the selfsame corner of Stelle and Madison, where the sign above was neatly stapled to a utility pole.

What are they doing? Now you know.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Sign Justice for Crescent Area Neighbors

Sign justice for C.A.N.

Plainfield's Crescent area residents have noticed the elected officials' sign aggrandizement that has reached their neighborhood. And they are not happy about it.

While Mayors and Councils have always been mentioned on signs for city construction projects, some serious sign aggrandizement has been going on the last couple of years.

When ground was broken on the new Senior Center complex, pols were prominently mentioned, but did not overwhelm the rendering of the project -- which was the point of the sign, after all. And Mayor Robinson-Briggs got equal type size with UCIA chairman Charlotte DeFilippo, as you can see below.

Then there are the new signs at the city's parks and playgrounds, where Mayor Robinson-Briggs' name appears, if somewhat more discreetly than the name of the park or playground. The example from Milt Campbell field gives you an idea.

I won't touch on how unusual it is for the Mayor's name to appear on a PERMANENT sign, except to point out that this is AN ENTIRELY NEW WRINKLE, reminiscent of ideas of personal importance shared by everyone from the ancient Pharaohs to such modern figures as Stalin and Saddam.

But then there was the demolition in the 500-block of South Avenue, funded by a state bond issue. The Mayor's name took a sudden leap in significance, as you can see below. And remains framing the vacant (are there toxic substances like asbestos in that pile of dirt?) to this day.

Recently, things reached a new height -- literally -- with the plunking of the sign in the middle of the Park Avenue peninsula.

You should understand the project is the brainchild of the Crescent Avenue Neighbors and, in particular, of Maria Pellum. They are righteously indignant about having been left out of any credit for the project.

Oh, and did I mention that they are VOTERS?

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

NJT Overpasses: New Traffic Patterns

As NJT continues the repairs and reconstruction of the rail overpasses in Plainfield, here's an update on new traffic patterns --

• Madison Avenue (southbound, one way) -- NOW CLOSED, as of 4/14/2008.
• Central Avenue (two-way) -- OPEN.
• New Street (southbound, one way) -- CLOSED.
• Liberty Street (northbound, one way) -- OPEN.

Work on the overpasses is scheduled for completion in 20009.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

NJT Overpasses: New Traffic Patterns Today

Central Avenue was returned to two-way north/south traffic Monday afternoon as NJT workers cleared away the barricades.

The large crane used to hoist portions of the overpasses on the continuing reconstruction project was relocated to Madison Avenue (one way southbound), which looks to be closed to through traffic Tuesday morning.

Liberty Street (northbound only) remains open.

New Street (southbound only) remains closed to through traffic.

NJT's reconstruction project for the four bridges is expected to be finished next year.

---

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

Geraud Avenue bridge: One strand in a spaghetti bowl

Map showing Geraud Avenue area. (Click to enlarge.)

After years of pressure from Somerset County on Plainfield to eliminate the Geraud Avenue bridge -- even dangling a million-dollar lollipop before a cash-hungry city -- it looks like this brook may flow uphill.

AST, the developer of the Marino's tract, which is supposed to be anchored by a supermarket, opines that the existence of a bridge over the Green Brook at Geraud Avenue to funnel traffic from the north to the site is essential to its viability.

Add to that support from South Plainfield, and it looks like the bridge could have another chance, especially if the Plainfield Council adopts a resolution of support.

Not without some wrinkles, of course.

Hence the spaghetti metaphor.

Geraud Avenue, view toward North Plainfield. (Click to enlarge.)

First, there is the question of whether Somerset County will want another bridge closed. That's a serious matter.

You may have noticed that traffic in Plainfield has increased dramatically over recent years, especially in the downtown business district. The nineteen north-south bridge crossing over the Green Brook have all been impacted by the opening a few years ago of the Watchung Square Mall and the intensification of businesses along 22.

So, while Somerset County (which maintains the bridges, but shares the cost with Union County) has in the past said it would want to close the Sycamore Avenue bridge if Geraud is reopened, my hope is that the City would press for a complete DOT review of all nineteen crossings, their role in the general north-south flow of traffic in the metro Plainfield area, and any impacts closing any bridge(s) would have.

That's the least the City should hold out for.

The DOT would also become involved (it has not been previously) as Front Street is a state highway at that point and a traffic control design would need state approval.

Then there's the question of the Geraud Avenue bridge itself.

Plaque on the Geraud Avenue bridge.
(Click to enlarge.)

Built in 1904 (not 1804 as I had previously misread the bridge's plaque), it is said to be historic -- not only for its age, but for its construction technique. If the state regards it as historic, the replacement process could become more complicated.

And, if we plan for success, the question of the bridge's width will need to be taken into account.

Then there's the question of keeping commerical traffic out of a residential neighborhood if Geraud Avenue becomes a popular route.

Spaghetti anyone?

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/

NJT Bridge Work: Central Avenue, New Street closed

Just like clockwork, NJT has closed Central Avenue (two-way traffic) and New Street (southbound only) to vehicular traffic as part of its ongoing program of Plainfield bridge renovations.

The barricades went up on Saturday and are expected to remain in place until next Spring.

Readers who use Central Avenue as a quick and easy route to and from Route 22 and other points should make alternate plans.

Meanwhile, Liberty Street (northbound) and Madison Avenue (southbound) are once again open to vehicular traffic.

With the recent completion of the Duer Street bridge work over the Green Brook, the Duer Street/Madison Avenue route will help those who want to avoid the Central Avenue headache, but only on the SOUTHBOUND trip.

As Roy Rogers and Dale Evans used to sing, "Happy Trails To You".

---

Plainfield Today: "An overview of the 2007-2009 NJT bridge renovations"

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.

ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/