(rshsdepot) Union, NJ

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

County contributes to road work as Union station nears completion


Thursday, May 23, 2002


BY ROBERT E. MISSECK
Star-Ledger Staff

Soon, Roselle Park will no longer be the last stop on NJ Transit's Raritan
Valley Line.

A new $27 million station off Morris Avenue in Union Township is nearing
completion. It will become the easternmost stop in Union County when the
facility opens around Dec. 1.

The station will be the centerpiece of a planned "transit village" that will
include a hotel, restaurant, professional building and townhouse complex.

Significant road improvements will also be needed in the area, according to
Councilman Peter Capodice, who has been spearheading the township's
development efforts.

So it was good news for township officials when the Union County freeholders
announced it would contribute $300,000 toward the $1.1 million cost to
renovate Green Lane, a major thoroughfare running between the station and
the nearby campus of Kean University.

The rest of the cost is being shared by the township, the state Department
of Transportation, Kean University and Schering- Plough, which is located
across from the university and the station.

"The plan will realize more than $1 million in new tax ratables and create
more than 100 new jobs," said Freeholder Angel G. Estrada, a member of the
board's Economic Development Committee in explaining why the county is
investing in the road improvement project.

Capodice said Green Lane will be widened to add an additional left-turn lane
onto Morris Avenue and another for motorists to enter Kean University.

"Traffic signals will be reconfigured to accommodate the anticipated change
in traffic flow and the road will be repaved from Morris Avenue to Woodland
Avenue," Capodice said.

Township Administrator Frank Bradley said construction is scheduled to begin
next month with completion by late August or early September "before Kean
goes back into full session."

"This has been a long project for us and it is wonderful to see it all
finally coming all together," Bradley said.

The new station is expected to serve 800 passengers a day, according to Ken
Miller, a spokesman for NJ Transit.

"The facility includes a 545-foot-high center platform, 3,000-square-foot
building with restrooms and space for vendors," Miller said.

"The project involved extensive construction of a new bridge over Morris
Avenue, the realignment of the existing track, a pedestrian passageway
beneath the tracks and a 467-space parking lot and drop-off area," he said.

In addition to being a site for commuter service to Newark and New York,
Miller said the new station will also be a "reverse commuter station, which
means that people who are traveling to destinations in Union County such as
Kean University, Schering-Plough and Elizabethtown Gas will all be using it
as a destination as well as a departure point."

The Raritan Valley line runs from High Bridge in Hunterdon County to Penn
Station in Newark, where passenger can connect to Hoboken and Newark's Penn
Station.



Robert E. Misseck works in the Union County bureau. He can be reached at
rmisseck_@_starledger.com or (908) 322-1755.

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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