NJ reduces Route 28 speed limit in Somerville
SOMERVILLE – The New Jersey Department of Transportation has "finally" agreed to lower the speed limit to 25 mph on Route 28 within the borders of Somerville.
"It's the best news we've had in a while," said Mayor Dennis Sullivan at Monday's Borough Council meeting.
Borough officials for years have lobbied the DOT to lower the speed limit on the state highway starting at Adamsville Road on the eastern border of the borough to Cornell Boulevard on the western border.
However, the new 25 mph speed limit will be in effect only from 50 feet east of Rehill Avenue to Cornell Boulevard.
That's because of a quirk that borough officials were not aware of.
They had assumed, Sullivan said, that the north half of the highway from Adamsville Road to Rehill Avenue was in Bridgewater and the south half was in Somerville.
But that section is all in Bridgewater, Sullivan said.
And because the road is entirely in Bridgewater, the DOT requires a request from Bridgewater to lower the speed limit.
Somerville will send a letter to Bridgewater requesting that the township ask the DOT to lower the speed limit on that section of the state highway from Adamsville Road to Rehill Avenue.
"We got 95% of what we wanted," Sullivan said. "I'm thrilled that we got what we got."
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Sullivan said it was important for the speed limit to be lowered on that section because of a day care center and medical offices.
The Borough Council will adopt a resolution accepting the state's lowering the speed limit at its next meeting on Dec. 19.
The mayor said it will take a while for the new speed limit signs to be planted along the highway.
Sullivan said the new speed limit may go into effect after the signs are erected and public notices posted, sometime in the spring.
Sullivan also announced that the state has awarded Somerville a grant of nearly $500,000 for the reconstruction of Rehill Avenue where Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset is located.
"It's certainly good news," Sullivan said, adding that a lot of traffic passes through Somerville and "beats up our roads."
Sullivan also said it was good to see the state return tax money to a local municipality.
"It's nice to see the spigot runs in both directions," he said.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ reduces Route 28 speed limit in Somerville
