Second access unlikely for Hawkins Rd. area
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN — The charm of living off the beaten path also has its drawbacks as residents of Manalapan’s “pocket roads” can attest.

One such road is Hawkins Road — a long thoroughfare whose only point of access, in or out, is off of Union Hill Road in Marlboro.

However, many homes along Hawkins Road and in the developments off of the street, although they are bordered by Marlboro and Old Bridge, are actually in Manalapan.

Police Chief Stuart Brown said there are a couple of “pocket roads” in Manalapan that share the same problem as Hawkins Road — only one way in and out to get to residents who need emergency responders at a time when the road may be closed due to repairs or acts of nature that render it impassable.

Brown acknowledged that such scenarios do increase emergency responders’ response time, but said the scenarios do not render emergency responses impossible.

In recent years, residents of the Hawkins Road area have lobbied township officials to identify a second, emergency, access into the area they have dubbed the Hawkins Road peninsula.

However, that does not appear likely to happen.

Brown said several options for creating an emergency access road into this isolated area of Manalapan were examined, but eventually scratched due to insurmountable odds such as the wetlands that make up the Marlboro border with the Manalapan tract, or the trail that links the tract with an Old Bridge residential area.

Brown said there is an ongoing attempt to develop a plan with a property owner at Hawkins and Templar roads. He said officials are trying to secure permission from the property owner for emergency responders to be able to use a portion of his property as an emergency access route.

Regardless of whether those negotiations pan out, Brown said, in the event of an emergency residents in the Hawkins Road peninsula can “rest assured we’ll get to them even if it means we have to runs lines through properties or drive a fire truck around the back of a house or send personnel in there on foot.”

Brown said in the event Hawkins Road is closed for any reason, all of Manalapan’s emergency responders will be notified of the closure so they know that in the event of any emergency they may have to “hoof it.”

In another street situation, Brown said the possibility of allowing access from Route 522 (Freehold-Englishtown Road) to Church Lane in the area of Manalapan High School is still on the table.

He said Monmouth County always intended Church Lane to have access to and from Route 522 (a county road) and it was only due to pressure from some area residents that led to a decision to ban access to Church Lane from Route 522 more than 20 years ago.

The idea of permitting access from Route 522 to Church Lane was before the Township Committee not too long ago, but the governing body ended up taking no action after a contingent of Church Road residents and other neighbors opposed the measure, according to the chief.

“The Township Committee, at that time, listened to the residents,” he said. “The county has indicated it has no problem with reopening [access to] Church Lane [from Route 522]. We just haven’t gotten it in writing.”

Township Engineer Greg Valesi told the committee at its Dec. 13 meeting that improvements are planned for Church Lane that will result in a sidewalk being constructed along the length of the street which runs between Route 522 and Tennent Road.

Brown said it would be prudent to wait until those improvements are completed before moving forward with the issue of reopening access to Church Lane from Route 522.

Acting Township Administrator Tara Lovrich said the matter has not been revisited since discussions were tabled more than a year ago. She agreed with Brown about waiting until the Church Lane improvements have been completed before revisiting the issue of access from Route 522.

Lovrich said there are logistical issues that would have to be addressed before permitting access from Route 522 to Church Lane, including the possibility that a traffic signal might need to be installed at that location. That could be complicated due to the proximity of an existing traffic signal at Route 522 and Taylors Mills Road, she said.

However, according to Brown and Lovrich, these are not insurmountable problems.

“As far as I know, (permitting access to Church Lane from Route 522) is still on the table, but it makes sense to wait until the improvements are made,” Brown said.

The police chief said he would like to see two-way access at that location, but added, “it’s tough now because the road is so narrow.”