Town-State Union Could Hasten Route 130, Riverton Rd. Fix

Cinnaminson wants to get involved in state plans to help alleviate traffic concerns at Riverton Road and Route 130 because officials believe local involvement will help speed up the project.

The township is waiting to hear back from the Department of Transportation regarding a potential collaboration—not unlike the borough’s involvement in hurrying up the Cinnaminson Avenue project a few years ago.

DOT spokesman Timothy Greeley said the department will reach out to the township soon for an update, but as of Tuesday, Deputy Mayor Anthony Minniti said Cinnaminson hasn’t heard anything.

The township found out the state was interested in doing some work on the busy intersection when inquiring about red-light cameras. The state will not consider red-light cameras at an intersection it plans on fixing, Minniti said. Route 130 is a state highway and Riverton Road is a county road.

“I think we can all agree we have a problem at the Riverton Road and Route 130 intersection,” said Minniti, who also serves as the director of economic development. “The volume of traffic is overwhelming.”

However, these projects “take 15 years to get done” if the state does it, Minniti said, and the state is only a couple of years into surveying the area.

So Cinnaminson officials contacted the DOT with the hopes of entering into an agreement to take the project over to get it done faster.

Greeley said the state has looked at the intersection and already worked up ideas for “relatively minor modifications” and “retiming measures to the existing signals to provide a safe pedestrian accommodation and potentially decrease the rate of rear-end crashes at this location.”

Greeley added the improvements to the intersection have been under consideration for quite some time and now that the township has reached out to them, the state will be advancing the work. However, a timeline has not been determined.

If the township were to get involved, officials would do everything DOT does but much more quickly, Minniti said. If DOT agrees, the bonding would be done immediately for the cost of the project and then DOT would cover the township’s out-of-pocket bonding and building construction costs.

“If we can do it more quickly and improve the situation for residents and the traveling public, we’re willing to look at that,” Minniti said.

Greeley said that because there are already plans in place, the state would most likely do the work themselves.

Minniti said the township is waiting for the state to contact them formally.

“We haven’t heard anything yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll get together and have a meeting,” Minniti said. “It’s a problematic intersection. If we can expedite the process, that is something the township would be interested in.”