Plans for 2025 safety path routes get go ahead

By Dana Casadei

While 2024 has just begun, the Bloomfield Township Engineering & Environmental Services Department (EESD) is already looking ahead to 2025 projects for the Jan Roncelli Safety Path Program, and came to the board of trustees at their Monday, January 22, meeting with a proposed path that would run along W. Maple Road.

The board voted 6-0 – trustee Valerie Murray was not in attendance – in favor of the suggested path, which is Route 25 on the 2008 Safety Path Master Plan. With the board’s approval, the EESD is now authorized to proceed with the design this year, with the bidding and construction to follow in 2025.

Corey Almas, P.E., director of the EESD, informed the board that his staff considered multiple routes in the master plan for construction, and ultimately, Route 25 made the most sense for the next phase of the project.

This particular route will run along the north side of W. Maple Road from W. Surrey Road to Franklin Road, and will include 3,500 linear feet of safety path, connecting the path already existing at Surrey Road and extending westward to Franklin Road.

The preliminary cost for Route 25 is $1,050,000; with $800,000 for construction and an additional $250,000 for engineering.

This proposed route will give residents additional access to the Jan Roncelli Safety Path, safely connecting to side streets, and will allow for those walking to access another existing path of the safety path on the south side of Franklin Road, as well as the path along Telegraph Road.

The board also approved to incorporate the 2024 and remaining 2023 safety path program to the 2024-2025 safety path budget, at a cost of $2.6 million for those projects.

The remaining 2023 Safety Path projects to be constructed this year take place on the west side of Lasher Road, from Quarton Road to Maple Road; and the east side of Franklin Road, from Kendry Drive to Freemont St. The 2024 project that still needs to be completed is along the west side of Telegraph Road from Humphrey Avenue to Clinton River Trail.