$5M In Pedestrian, Bicycle Safety Projects Coming To Point Pleasant

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Point Pleasant has been working on road reconstruction and new sidewalks throughout the borough but he appealed to Hozapfel for help because the need for improvements was a significant financial strain for borough.

Holzapfel, who represents the 10th District, grew up in Point Pleasant and supported the borough’s request, and worked with NJDOT to secure the $5 million commitment, officials said.

It’s an amount that Sabosik described as “life-changing” for the borough, which has a total budget for 2024 of about $24 million, not including its water and sewer budget.

“I cannot emphasize enough what this funding is going to mean to our community,” Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci said. “The projects that will be done due to the funding that the Senator secured from the Department of Transportation are going to completely reshape our community. It truly will be a renaissance because all this ties into other projects being funded from other grants.”

Point Pleasant officials announced the NJDOT commitment in July, and Schapiro confirmed the details to Patch in an email Wednesday.

One grant from NJDOT will make improvements to curbs and construct sidewalks on River Road and Herbertsville Road, and the other will make sidewalk improvements to Bridge Avenue, Schapiro said.

“In addition to the grants, the Department is in the process of designing short term improvements to accommodate bicyclists and improve crosswalks on Route 88 between Milepost 7.6 to 10,” he said.

The improvements along that part of Route 88 will include bike lane markings, shared-use markings and signs. There also will be crosswalk upgrades at four intersections, with pedestrian signals added, updated timing for pedestrian signals and clearance intervals, upgraded lighting, and the addition of high visibility crosswalks, he said.

Schapiro said the NJDOT is investigating the feasibility of long-term improvements on about 5 miles of Route 88 from Route 70 to Route 35 in Brick and Point Pleasant to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Pannucci said work already has begun on the design of the curbs and sidewalks for River and Herbertsville roads.

“The New Jersey Department of Transportation has been great,” he said. “We’ve already gotten the award letter for the $2 million grant to go towards River and Herbertsville Roads and we have already approved our engineers to design and ultimately bid out that project.”

The Borough Council also approved the design work for the Bridge Avenue improvements at the Aug. 26 council meeting, Pannucci said.

The River and Herbertsville roads grant will complete work the borough has started, officials said.

The funding will pay for sidewalks on one side of the road down the entire length of Point Pleasant’s portion of Herbertsville Road and along the entire length of one side of River Road. Neither road has sidewalks, except for a small portion the borough started in 2023.

“Families and residents of all ages have to walk practically in the street to get to Riverfront Park, dealing with the cross traffic between Route 70 and Route 88,” Sabosik said. “For the first time ever, these roads will have a safe sidewalk for residents of those neighborhoods to walk down. It’s going to be life-changing for our town.”

Along Bridge Avenue, there will be “Share the Road” symbols put in the entire length of the road, similar to what’s on Route 35 in Bay Head, officials said. There is not enough room to create dedicated bicycle lanes, they said.

In addition, crosswalks will be improved with ADA-compliant cutouts and ramps and new push-to-walk lighted crosswalk signs, and the borough will install more electric and solar speed limit signs and speed feedback signs along the road.

Ocean County, which is responsible for Bridge Avenue, has agreed to let the borough do the work, officials said.

The work along Route 88, which the NJDOT is handling, includes push-to-walk lighted crosswalk signs at spots like at the skatepark, Point Creamery and a few other heavily used crosswalks, officials said.

“This will dramatically increase safety, especially at night when these crosswalks are rather dark,” Sabosik said.

He said a dedicated bicycle lane on the part of Route 88 that is west of the bridge is hoped for; east of the bridge there is not enough room so there will be “share the road” symbols installed

The $5 million in projects is in addition to a $752,000 grant the borough received to install sidewalks around Ocean Road Elementary School, and goes along with projects to put sidewalks along Dorsett Dock Road, and an Ocean County-funded project to install sidewalks along the Point Pleasant portion of Arnold Avenue. Also in the works are lighting improvements on the Beaver Dam Road side of Community Park.

“This funding means we don’t have to use local tax dollars, which is amazing,” Council President Antoinette DePaola said. “These public safety initiatives will undoubtedly change our community for the better.”

“From a law enforcement perspective, these projects are absolutely life-altering for our town,” Police Chief Adam Picca said.

The electronic speed limit display and feedback signs have improved issues with speeding, Picca said, “so to have more will absolutely be a benefit as it brings drivers’ speed to their attention immediately.”

The other improvements “will increase safety by making bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers more alert to their actions and surroundings,” Picca said. “And then the sidewalks on Herbertsville and River Roads, all I can say is that this is amazing.”

Sabosik praised Holzapfel for his assistance in getting NJDOT to approve the funding and projects.

“To say he acted upon this request quickly would be an understatement. He really came through for our community and the Council and I can’t thank him enough,” Sabosik said.

“Point Pleasant Borough is a special town,” Holzapfel said. “It’s no wonder people would do anything to live there and that the residents don’t want to leave. It was about time the State invested in some significant improvements to this area and I’m just happy I was able to help get this done.”

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