Peters Place is one of two borough streets targeted for improvements. (Click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Red Bank is among four towns on The Green to pull in a share of $6.6 million in state dollars for street and safety improvement projects, the Department of Transportation announced earlier this week.
The borough will use the $200,000 in municipal aid for upgrades on Peters and Drummond Place, two main cut-throughs for motorists traveling on Broad Street and Maple Avenue, said borough enginer Christine Ballard.
But exactly what those improvements will include isn’t clear at this point, Ballard said.
“It’s so new I haven’t even had the chance to meet with everybody about it,” she said.
The general plan is to make upgrades to the curbing and sidewalks and resurface the streets, where cracks and potholes wreak havoc on the tires and suspension systems of vehicles, Ballard said.
“It needs everything,” Ballard said of Peters Place. And with buses and other vehicles picking up and dropping off Red Bank Catholic students, she added, “Drummond Place is, in some places, worse.”
That the two see so much traffic is a large reason Red Bank received the funding, Ballard said.
Although this was the only aid application for these types of funds, Ballard said, “We submit a lot of different grant applications through the year. This is just one we got selected for.”
Ballard said she will meet with the public works committee to narrow the scope of work to be done on the two streets and draw up a cost estimate. Municipalities typically have 18 months from the time they receive the money to award a contract.
Other nearby towns can expect to make construction plans, too.
Fair Haven received $200,000 for upgrades to Lake Avenue; Middletown also got $200,000, for Monmouth Avenue; and Rumson took in $160,000 for improvements to Black Point Road.
