By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
It’s no secret that the Garden State Parkway’s Ocean View service plaza serves as an unofficial U-turn for many motorists heading to Sea Isle City.
Mary Tighe is one of them.
But Tighe, a Sea Isle councilwoman, has noticed lately that it has been “awfully dark” in the service plaza when she makes the U-turn at night.
She complained during a Council meeting Tuesday that new LED street lights that were installed at Ocean View as part of $5 million in safety improvements have not been activated yet.
“They have been there for months and months, but they’re not on,” she said in an interview after the Council meeting.
She’s right. The agency that operates the Garden State Parkway said the new street lights remain dark for now because of delays in getting transformers and other electrical components needed to turn them on.
Tom Feeney, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, said the electrical parts finally arrived in February. The contractor overseeing the project expects to return to Ocean View in mid-March to finish the job, he added.
“In the meantime, the old lights are still in place and functioning,” Feeney said in an email Thursday about the non-LED lights at the service plaza.
After learning of the Parkway’s plans, Tighe was happy to hear that the brighter lights will be turned on in March. At the same time, she noted that there aren’t that many of the old lights, so motorists will continue to deal with limited visibility at night for now.
Ocean View is one of nine service plazas along the Parkway undergoing improvements to their entrance and exit ramps. The total cost for all nine plazas is $28 million, with Ocean View’s share being $5 million.
The work at Ocean View included lengthening the acceleration and deceleration lanes, improving roadway drainage, building new stormwater management basins, upgrading electric service, converting to LED lighting, and replacing guiderail, along with milling and paving, according to the Turnpike Authority.
The longer acceleration and deceleration lanes make it safer for motorists entering and leaving the service plaza.
Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio complained about the Ocean View project last year when work came to a lengthy halt because of what the Turnpike Authority said were supply chain disruptions that interrupted the delivery of electric cable and light fixtures.
When the project came to a standstill during the late summer and fall, motorists were forced to squeeze through temporary concrete construction barriers as they merged onto the high-speed lanes of busy Parkway traffic – a potentially dangerous scenario, Desiderio said.
However, the barriers have since been removed and the project is nearing completion – once the new LED street lights are activated.
Referring to the Turnpike Authority, Desiderio joked to Tighe during the Council meeting Tuesday that the new street lights remain off because “maybe they don’t have the money to turn the lights on.”
Desiderio, though, stressed that he is pleased overall with the safety improvements made at the Ocean View plaza.
“We’re happy with what they’ve accomplished so far,” he said of the Turnpike Authority.
Desiderio and Tighe have been focusing on the safety improvements because the Ocean View plaza is located only about a mile from the Parkway’s southbound Exit 17 leading to Sea Isle City.
However, there is no exit connecting the Parkway with Sea Isle on the northbound side of the highway. But one shortcut that is known by local motorists is to drive a little farther north on the Parkway and then make a U-turn at the Ocean View plaza. That gives them access to the Parkway’s southbound lanes and the Exit 17 off-ramp to Sea Isle.
Both Desiderio and Tighe said they are among the local motorists who often use the unofficial U-turn.
“There’s a lot of us out there,” Tighe said.
For years, Sea Isle officials have hoped that the Turnpike Authority would convert Exit 17 into a full-fledged, four-way interchange.
In its current configuration, the interchange is split into two parts. Exit 17’s off-ramp on the southbound side of the Parkway merges with Sea Isle Boulevard. For motorists wanting to access the Parkway’s northbound lanes, they must follow Sea Isle Boulevard out of town and then hop on a separate on-ramp.
