Traffic through Short Hills / Millburn 10/15/ 15

The S curves on South Orange Ave closed. Old Short Hills road traffic backed up the whole way, couldn't get to Maplewood off of Ridgewood Ave. 55 minutes to get through after heading back up S Orange
Ave to JFK to rt 24 to Maplewood that way. There must have been 25,000 cars trying to get through this area at 6:15pm. That just can't be all volume. Better timing/planning of the closing of the S curves to allow people to get home from work and maybe some police directing traffic through here .ugh what a traffic nightmare it was.

Agreed, 1hour and 25 minutes and I finally went all the way over to Northfield to get down. Started in Madison at 5:15. Home in Mplw at 6:40. And some people were terrific and others were rude and pushy. A little notice goes a long way.

I got to the S-Curves at 5:30pm. I didn't get to Clinton school to pick up my daughter until 6:30pm. It's a typical Jersey Detour "Road Closed. . . Go Fnck Yourself."

This should make it all better From Joey D...

Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.

Asthe South Orange Avenue project has progressed, we have tried to inform
the public in advance of when the roadway will be closed. This enables
people to plan alternate routes or allow for extra time. The closure on
October 15th was not a “planned” event. The contractor working on the
road had to move some equipment and closed the road so that could be
done. We agree that doing that at afternoon rush hour was not the most
appropriate time.
I am pleased to report that the project is
reaching its conclusion. We will be closing the roadway at least one
more time to complete paving – which will be announced through the
media, on our website and via social media. There may also be some other
closures to move equipment, and I am working with our Public Works
Department to coordinate those so we can also notify the public and
motorists ahead of time. When equipment is moved, the road will only be
closed during the duration of the move.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

The contractor should be fined. . . they should not be allowed to close a road during rush hour without advance notice (and a police presence). With a major hospital within miles of that intersection it was a careless, and potentially dangerous, decision.

skadave said:
The contractor should be fined. . . they should not be allowed to close a road during rush hour without advance notice (and a police presence). With a major hospital within miles of that intersection it was a careless, and potentially dangerous, decision.

I agree wholeheartedly and would hope such closures were only during non rush hours, maybe overnight. The fact that there are continual closures to Glen Ave should be considered.

So, are the S curves on South Orange open this week or no?

Post by JoeD says next t-w-t Oct 27-29 closed east bound. Glad to have the heads up. Now if only I could take some days off from my commute. . .

onceinawhile said:
Post by JoeD says next t-w-t Oct 27-29 closed east bound. Glad to have the heads up. Now if only I could take some days off from my commute. . .

Where do you see this information? TIA.

bets said:

onceinawhile said:
Post by JoeD says next t-w-t Oct 27-29 closed east bound. Glad to have the heads up. Now if only I could take some days off from my commute. . .

Where do you see this information? TIA.

I saw it somewhere in my email and also on the electronic signs along South Orange Avenue.

Here:

https://southorange.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/id/121720--EASTBOUND-LANES-OF-SOUTH-ORANGE-AVENUE-WILL-BE-CLOSED-FOR-ROAD-REPAVING-10-27-10-29#comment-3118886

Thanks! It would be nice if the county's website had anything useful on it!

I sent an email to notifications@essexcountynj.org asking whether alternate plans could be implemented and asking where on the website I can find updates about closures. I received this incredibly condescending email from a "county engineer."

"Thank you for your email and appreciate your concern.
The South Orange Ave project is a very large project and we could have closed the road for two years and done the work right. However, We choose to help the vehicles by keeping the road open but there are times we need to close the roads for switching traffic in short notice. There will be more closures coming up and we will try to keep public appraised."

I forwarded that to Joe D. with a complaint about its tone and lack of information, and received this from another county engineer:

"As the South Orange Avenue project has progressed, we have tried to inform the public in advance of when the roadway will be closed. This enables people to plan alternate routes or allow for extra time. The closure on October 15th was not a “planned” event. The contractor working on the road had to move some equipment and closed the road so that could be done. We agree that doing that at afternoon rush hour was not the most appropriate time and our public works staff has talked to the contract about the bad timing.
We will be closing the roadway at least one more time to complete paving – October 27 to 29. This information was sent to the media, is being on our website and was sent via the Essex County’s social media. There may also be some other closures to move equipment, and I am working with our Public Works Department to coordinate those so we can also notify the public and motorists ahead of time. When equipment is moved, the road will only be closed during the duration of the move.
Regarding your question about overnight paving, I am in the process of finding out about that.
We apologize for the inconvenience."

Once again, I asked where on the county website was this information available, and LO AND BEHOLD, got this:

"The announcement is at the top of the home page."

And it is (though it wasn't before my emails of this morning):

http://essexcountynj.org/

Is SOA closed today?

I don't normally commute through there, but had to go to Rte 10 yesterday during rush hour. Oh.My.God. I can't believe you've had to put up with a situation THAT BAD! It makes commuting on a disabled NJ Transit train look like a walk in the park! I couldn't believe that clusterf*ck is allowed to happen with regularity. The only thing that saved me was my RadioLab podcasts.....I was stuck in that traffic long enough to hear two episodes. (I highly recommend listening to the "Smile My Ass" episode about Alan Funt and Candid Camera. Really funny.)

It's really bad when you have warning; the day they did it without any warning at all was truly the worst traffic I've ever had to endure. And it's slated to continue through April.

TigerLilly said:
I don't normally commute through there, but had to go to Rte 10 yesterday during rush hour. Oh.My.God. I can't believe you've had to put up with a situation THAT BAD! It makes commuting on a disabled NJ Transit train look like a walk in the park! I couldn't believe that clusterf*ck is allowed to happen with regularity. The only thing that saved me was my RadioLab podcasts.....I was stuck in that traffic long enough to hear two episodes. (I highly recommend listening to the "Smile My Ass" episode about Alan Funt and Candid Camera. Really funny.)

There would be significantly less congestion if they put a police officer to direct traffic at the Brookside Drive/Glen Ave traffic light in Millburn. That is the cause of the backup.

It's like traffic hell out there right now. I had to drop off in Chatham at 4:30 and saw the back up the other directions through Short hills. I came back to SO via route 24 getting off in Millburn and it still took me 45 minutes to get home. Even worse, I have to do it again to pick the kid up at 6:30.

skadave said:
There would be significantly less congestion if they put a police officer to direct traffic at the Brookside Drive/Glen Ave traffic light in Millburn. That is the cause of the backup.

Bur we do not want you cutting through our town. So why make it easier.

I had to go back out to rte 10 in Livingston again last night and took rte 10 all the way back to Gregory and came across that way. Better than getting stuck on the Brookside hell....

bramzzoinks said:

skadave said:
There would be significantly less congestion if they put a police officer to direct traffic at the Brookside Drive/Glen Ave traffic light in Millburn. That is the cause of the backup.

Bur we do not want you cutting through our town. So why make it easier.

Because it's a society, you ass hat. What if every town around Millburn had your selfish attitude?

No town likes through traffic and most do things to make it difficukt. Welcome to NJ.

Millburn is currently discussing plans to make it more difficult by narrowing Milburn Ave and making Main one way between Millburn and Essex.

So it's "time for traffic problems" for Millburn's neighbors? Can't imagine how that could go wrong...

njcanuck said:
So it's "time for traffic problems" for Millburn's neighbors? Can't imagine how that could go wrong...

I think he's yanking your chain and you are falling into the trap.

bramzzoinks said:

skadave said:
There would be significantly less congestion if they put a police officer to direct traffic at the Brookside Drive/Glen Ave traffic light in Millburn. That is the cause of the backup.

Bur we do not want you cutting through our town. So why make it easier.

Because the detour is going through your town anyway. If you put a cop at the light the traffic would move smoother and would be finished quicker.

marylago said:

njcanuck said:
So it's "time for traffic problems" for Millburn's neighbors? Can't imagine how that could go wrong...

I think he's yanking your chain and you are falling into the trap.

Not at all. I am just stating the prevailing attitude. There is no love for cars passing through and every desire to discourage it as much as possible.

bramzzoinks said:

marylago said:

njcanuck said:
So it's "time for traffic problems" for Millburn's neighbors? Can't imagine how that could go wrong...

I think he's yanking your chain and you are falling into the trap.

Not at all. I am just stating the prevailing attitude. There is no love for cars passing through and every desire to discourage it as much as possible.

I'm going to have turkey chili that I made for lunch. I put a little cheese on top. I am looking forward to it.

Stick your head in the sand. But if you look at any of the Millburn news sites articles and comments revolve around how the traffic issue is people passing through town and how to make it more difficult for them to do so.

So if you want to have your turkey chili at a Millburn restaurant great. But if you want to pass through Millburn to get to a restaurant elsewhere people in Millburn have issues with it.