Shrewsbury Avenue pedestrian safety improvements in Red Bank could begin early 2025

RED BANK – Naty Oliveras has lived in the neighborhood surrounding Shrewsbury Avenue for 68 years. She remembers how quiet the neighborhood was growing up.

She said, there was "less traffic, which was great."

Her husband Milton Oliveras, who has lived in the area for about five decades, said, “You (could) cross the street with your eyes closed.”

Since then, Shrewsbury Avenue has become the street with the highest volume of traffic in the borough and the most accidents. It is a thru way both to get to downtown Red Bank and to get from Shrewsbury Borough or Tinton Falls to Middletown.

To prioritize pedestrian safety, the borough received a $1 million federal grant that it hopes to spend on building sidewalk bulb outs, ADA compliant curb ramps and flashing LED crossing beacons among other improvements.

The grant was approved in 2019 and the original project deadline was for 2024. However, delays have pushed the deadline to early 2026.

“We’re fine in term of timeline, but slower than we hoped,” Interim borough administrator Darren McConnell said. “COVID and everything else slowed us down.”

According to the grant application, the borough looked to improve Shrewsbury Avenue because a 2010 study found that in a five-year period, the street had 15 cyclist and pedestrian crashes, the most in the borough.

According to NJ Department of Transportation data, the street also has the highest volume of traffic at 17,290 vehicles in 2019, the last year traffic counts were completed for that street.

Jason Besz, project manager with the engineering firm Greennman-Pedersen, said the proposed sidewalk bulb outs would allow pedestrians to see vehicles coming down the road and drivers to see pedestrians waiting at intersections.

Bulb outs extend portions of the sidewalks out to the edge of where cars could park on the side of the road.

In the past year, the borough has placed signs along the road alerting drivers that not stopping for pedestrian at crosswalks could result in a ticket. It also placed signs along the sidewalk in English and Spanish, urging pedestrians to exercise precaution when crossing the road.

Naty Oliveras said, “Even with the signs up you have to wait and wait and wait before taking chances. At my age, I can’t zoom across anymore.”

According to Besz, other improvements include rain gardens to help with stormwater management, street trees, benches and trash cans.

The borough is also looking to replace the light fixtures along the road with LED lighting, but Besz said they found additional issues that would require more than simply swapping out the lights.

“We’re working to see how we can do that within the existing budget or if we need to apply for more grant money in order to take care of that,” he said.

The project is funded through the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives Program, according to Besz. The state Department of Transportation distributes the funds and, because Shrewsbury Avenue is a county road, both Monmouth County and the borough would need to sign off on final plans.

While Naty Oliveras wishes the drivers could be more considerate and slow down, she said she likes that the proposal includes the bulb outs, flashing crossing beacons and ADA accessibility features.

“I know what it was like to be in a wheelchair. What it was like to be in crutches trying to cross the road,” she said. “I can’t wait until it starts.”

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Red Bank Shrewsbury Avenue pedestrian improvements coming in 2025