Driveway Proposal For Route 70 Wawa Rejected In Brick

BRICK, NJ — The Brick Township Board of Adjustment rejected a request for an entrance to the Route 70 Wawa and Panera site from North Lake Shore Drive on Wednesday night over traffic concerns.

The rejection, by a 6-1 vote, came after Brick 70 Developers, the owners of the property, amended their application to change it from a full driveway to one that would have provided just an entrance from North Lake Shore Drive.

Nicholas Verderese, an engineer who testified for the developer, said the entrance would provide easier access from the east end of the property, which sits at the corner of Route 70 and Duquesne Boulevard.

Verderese also said he believed that with changes to the timing of the traffic signal that controls the intersection of Route 70 and Duquesne, any extra traffic would be mitigated.

Those timing changes, however, would have to be approved and implemented by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, which controls Route 70.

John Jahr, traffic engineer for Brick Township, said the addition of any traffic to the intersection, which has been a sore spot for years, would simply magnify the issues that exist and increase the potential for crashes because of people turning left into the driveway from North Lake Shore, with traffic coming across Route 70 from Target or from motorists turning right off Route 70 into Lake Riviera.

"The geometry of the whole intersection needs improvements," Jahr said. "This is a very banged-up intersection. It's very stressed out."

Residents told the zoning board they have to wait multiple cycles of the traffic signal to get out of Lake Riviera now, and said any traffic will increase that problem.

"I have two daughters who are new drivers who won't go out North Lake Shore now," one man, who lives on Birch Bark Drive, said.

Ed Murray, whose home is on North Lake Shore Drive just past Duquesne, said he has nearly been rear-ended multiple times by drivers coming from Route 70 and Duquesne.

"Many of us are traveling extra distances to avoid North Lake Shore," said Diane Dowlen of Winding Way. Dowlen said she goes to Beaverson Boulevard or Brick Boulevard to access Route 70, because the wait times from North Lake Shore are so extensive.