Another round of trailbuilding on the Millstone

A team of seven volunteers worked again on the new trails on the Millstone River Preserve located off of the end of Joanne Street. The volunteers were Kevin Appelget, Andrew Kully, Eric Sleeper, Ryan Sleeper, Chuck Chang, Dave Norman, and Ken Carlson. Interesting note- Ryan is a member of the WWP HS North Cross Country running team and says that the team has enjoyed running on the Millstone Preserve Trails.

The group of volunteers was able to complete the perimeter trail, so now residents can enter the trailhead and walk the completed trail network. Future work will include refinements to the existing trails, the addition of spur trails to Bear Brook and the Millstone River, removal of no longer used hunters' deer blinds, and the placement of trail signs. We will also look to install a small kiosk with a map of the this part of the Preserve. Thanks to all the volunteers!

Trailbuilding on the Millstone

On Saturday March 24th, 16 volunteers welcomed Spring by blazing new trails along the Millstone River. The diligent trailbuilders, joined by three energetic children, worked for several hours raking, chain sawing, and cutting back branches and brambles, creating the new trails. The trails offer lovely views of the Millstone River, a variety of trees, and pass through a Tolkiensque section of twisted vines and trees- a veritable Mirkwood. The trails are located on preserved land that is bordered by Joanne Street, the Millstone River, Bear Brook, and the NE Corridor Rail line. To access the trails, please park at the Millstone Preserve parking lot on Millstone Rd, and walk the short distance down Millstone Rd. to Joanne St., and then down to the end of Joanne Street.

The preserved land, formerly known as the Astura and Gunther properties, is now part of the Millstone River Preserve. Once one more parcel along Millstone Road is preserved, there will be continuous preserved land and trails along the Millstone River from Grovers Mill Pond to the train tracks. We will be meeting again the coming weeks to build more trails on this part of the Preserve.

Our volunteer crew consisted of Dave, Katherine, Matthew and Andrew Osborn, Tim Cresson, Robin Miller, Roger Alig, Ace Miller, Frank Potter, Laxma and Sula Kolla, Newell Benedict, Ham Pkardooni, Ted Ross, Ron Slinn, and Ken Carlson. Many thanks to Kevin Appelget for helping to lay out the trail network.

Clarksville Rd Study

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Committee has selected Clarksville Rd. for a traffic calming study. I attended the kick-off meeting on March 15th as an invited participant

• Who was there: four planners from the DVRPC, Jim Parvesse, Pat Ward, Chief Pica and one of his officers, George Fallat and Greg Sandusky and Matt Lawson from the County, someone representing the BRT, someone from NJ Transit, the person in charge of transportation for WW-P Schools.
• What is being done: The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission has selected Clarksville Rd. for one of two Traffic Calming Studies for 2007 (they do one in NJ and one in PA) from a list of potential candidates (which are nominated by the 9 counties in the DVRPC's region). They chose the Clarksville Rd. corridor for a number of reasons- The county has had Clarksville Rd on its list for the last two years. They chose it because it's vicinity to the train station, the fact that there are two schools located on the corridor, and the recent articles relating to the pedestrian accident (which they didn't seem to know a lot about).
• The original limit of the study was Clarksville Rd from Rt 571 up to but not including the bridge over the NE corridor train tracks. We convinced them right away to increase the limits of the study to include the bridge and up to the entrances of the JCC and the Axelrod Apt complex. The output from this study will a Traffic Calming Study Report, which should be completed by the end of summer, including existing conditions and major deficiencies of the corridor, recommendations for the corridor and recommendations for funding ( e.g., Safe Routes to School- which the DVPRC administers)
• We discussed the existing conditions. We spent a lot of time on the future Avalon Watch improvements and the reasons for these improvements. I asked that the county consider leaving room for bikelanes when they make their road improvements.
  We also spent a lot of time on the bridge over the NE corridor tracks (as we were convincing them to increase the study area). The bridge is a clear pinch point for pedestrian and bicylilsts. Turns out the bridge is not an orpahn bridge but is owned by the county and the county has no plans to replace it. The county is open to the idea of cantilevering a bike-ped addition. A "parallel structure" would be possible.
• I argued strongly for bikelanes to be included on the entire length of Clarksville Rd. The DVRPC seems entirely in support of bikelanes. We also spent a lot of time on pedestrian conditions around high school south (a major focus of mine). We talked about pedestrian improvements to the Penn Lyle and Clarksville intersection as well as the Clarksville and Rt 571 intersection, as well as general traffic calming along the road.
• I asked about widening Clarksville Rd between Everett and Everett Drives to allow for bikelanes. The county and township are interestingly waiting for a developer to come along and develop the land across from the firehouse and pay for the widening. It's not cheap apparently.
• Next steps- the DVRPC will be gathering data and doing field studies. and then there will be another meeting. I told them about the WWBPA and what we've been trying to do. I gave them our web site and will send them information re our role in Avalon Watch, etc. I invited them to our next meeting. They recommended that we write a position paper on what we'd like to see on Clarksville Rd. They handed out a recent publication of theirs called "taming Traffic" about recent contect-sensitive solutions in the DVRPC region. Let me know if you're interested in seeing it. Let me know your thoughts about what you'd like to see on Clarksville Rd. We have a great chance to improve this important road in our town.

Respectfully, Ken

Trail Building Day Saturday March 24

The West Windsor Bicycle Pedestrian Alliance and Friends of West Windsor Open Space are hosting a trailbuilding day on Saturday March 24th (the rain date is Sunday March 25th). Come out to help build a new trail through beautiful wooded preserved land along the Millstone River on the first weekend of Spring. Meet at 1 p.m. at the Millstone Preserve parking lot located off of Millstone Road and head out to nearby Joanne Street for the location where the trailing-building will start. Kids of all age are welcome. Please bring along:
working gloves
a hat
water to drink
and one or more of the following:
rakes
shears or loppers
hoe
shovel
We are also looking for a few people with chain saws. Please e-mail me if you have a chain saw. Please RSVP if you can to wwbikeped@gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you there! If the weather is questionable, please look for an e-mail announcement or notice here the morning of the 24th.

~ Susan Conlon

March Meeting & Updates

The next meeting of the West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance is this Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m., in room D (downstairs) of the Municipal Building at Clarksville Road. All are welcome.
Also on Thursday night, the Township Administration will present its Capital Budget projects relating to bicycle and pedestrian projects to he Township Council at 7 p.m. in Room A of the Municipal Building. We have met with the township about the their items included and will be making public comments (see our web site for more information). Through our lobbying efforts (and the efforts of others) we are glad to say that the township has increased its funding for bikelanes and sidewalks, although we are still working to maintain the township's focus on specific bike-ped priorities.
Good news! The State has approved the granting of a mid-block pedestrian crossing at Clarksville Road at the Avalon Watch apartment complex. Work on the improvements should be starting this year. We will continue to lobby the County and the State for a similar approval for a mid-block pedestrian crossing at Sherbrooke Drive and Rt. 571.
~ Susan Conlon