There’s good news if your travels take you through Monmouth County.

Efforts have begun to improve a major intersection in Colts Neck that has been causing terrible congestion for years.

Lillian Burry, the Monmouth County Freeholder Board director, said the intersection of State Route 34 and County Route 537 needs to be reconfigured because there are huge jam-ups every morning and late afternoon.

“It’s a safety issue. It’s a high accident area. It’s been deemed as probably the busiest intersection in Monmouth County," she said.

“It is very difficult to journey, if you will, from the west to the east at the later hours in the day, and the reverse in the morning hours.”

“The roads are going to literally be widened and reconfigured, which will help to alleviate the cueing up at that point at certain times. Anyone coming through here will be really quite a remarkable improvement.”

Burry noted she’s been working to develop a plan to improve the intersection for 17 years, ever since she was on the Colts Neck town council.

Joe Ettore, the Monmouth County engineer, says there are 20,000 vehicles a day on average on State Highway 34, and 17,000 vehicles on average on County Highway 537.

“The intersection itself will have a new modern, more efficient traffic signal installed, but we’ll also be adding lanes, only at the intersection, to more efficiently funnel traffic through that location.

The $17.5 million project, which will take about two years to complete, will also include the reconfiguration of two nearby bridges that cross Mine brook and Yellow brook.

The work, which began last Friday, is being paid for with mostly federal funds secured through the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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