Relief to Come to Lacey Road and Route 9

Lacey Township has made progress on a plan to widen the intersection of Lacey Road and Route 9.

The township recently entered into an agreement with the state Department of Transportation to sell plots in the front of Community Hall and TD Bank.

Township Administrator and Municipal Clerk Veronica Laureigh said the township intends to widen the road by cutting the curb back on the corner of Route 9 heading south and Lacey Road heading west. The DOT would put in a right turn lane in addition to two straight lanes to proceed south.

There are plans to reconfigure the area coming from the Lacey Library by adding a left hand-turn lane only, a straight lane and a right turn lane. 

There would also be a barricade from the intersection of Lacey Road and Route 9 down to Jones Road.  Drivers will be able to proceed in and out of Jones Road but will be unable to make left-hand turns out of there.

Tim Greeley, DOT spokesman, confirmed that the state does have a project currently in design that proposes to make improvements to the intersection including the addition of an exclusive right-turn lane on Route 9 southbound as well as new left-turn slots in both directions on Route 9.

"It will be beneficial for the businesses and residents," Gisell Mason, financial services representative at TD Bank, said as she reflected on the many accidents that occur at the intersection.

The township believes that just the right turn lane proceeding south on Route 9 would address the bottlenecking issues but the DOT's studies say otherwise.

Owners of businesses surrounding the intersection believe Lacey Road and Route 9 is a "troublesome intersection" that disrupts theirow work.

The traffic is good for [business] over here but people also get annoyed because of the intersection so a lot of times they just keep driving," Kelly Mahoney, assistant manager of Spirits Unlimited said.  "It would probably be beneficial, especially here in this building because it is really hard to take a left out of the parking lot. During the day it is impossible to make a left. Most of the time you have to make a right and turn around. "

The project is estimated to be $11 million and will be funded by grants. Although Greeley said there is no time line available for when construction might begin, Laureigh anticipates bids and construction to begin in 2012.