WEST ORANGE, NJ – Three engineers from Colliers Engineering and Design gave a presentation during the June 25 town council meeting about new traffic lights and other safety measures for Essex County, including two intersections in West Orange.

Asif Mahmood, Anthony Mariani and Adam Allen showed slides of the intersection schematics and explained that the project is federally funded.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TAPINTO.NET NEWSLETTER

12 new traffic signals will be installed, and the entire project costs over $22 million. In addition to the intersections of Washington Street and Watchung Avenue and Pleasant Valley Way and Woodland Avenue, other new Essex County traffic lights will be installed in Orange, Glen Ridge, Montclair (three), Verona, Belleville, Nutley (two) and Millburn.

The engineers reported, “The project includes state-of-the-art new equipment to enhance mobility through the corridor.” Some of the improvements besides replacing old traffic lights with new ones include curb ramps, pedestrian signals and new high visibility crosswalks, pedestrian countdown timers, a different traffic signal phasing, American Disability Act (ADA) compliant curbs and louvres for more light.

The Washington Street and Watchung Avenue intersection will have high visibility crosswalks, new curb ramps and a new traffic signal. Curb bump outs in some locations have been proposed as a safety feature that helps pedestrians get a better line of sight for vehicles.

Pleasant Valley Way and Woodland Avenue will have traffic signals and reflectorized backplates, a new Department of Transportation innovation.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TAPINTO APP FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS. AVAILABLE IN THE APPLE STORE AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE .

According to the engineers, “As part of our process to get the grant money and to do these improvements, we are analyzing traffic crash records and trying to find patterns. [We need to provide] proven safety countermeasures that go into place.”

The project is scheduled to begin in a couple of months, and they are working on obtaining approval.

Residents have three weeks to make comments about the traffic lights. They can email anthony.mariani@collerseng.com or adam.allen@colliereng.com with suggestions, questions and comments.

Click HERE to watch the entire meeting.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net