Parkway Exit 105 Reconfiguration Still in Works

The reconfiguration of Garden State Parkway Exit 105 in Tinton Falls is still in the preliminary engineering phase, according to New Jersey Turnpike Authority Spokesman Thomas Feeney.

"We’re likely to schedule a public hearing before the  end of the year," Feeney said in an e-mail to Patch. "We won’t have a construction schedule until the design is done."

Feeney said the authority's chief engineer, Rich Raczynski, told the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) board in June, 2011 that the final design would take about two years to complete.

The project will include improvements to Exit 105 and the intersection of Route 36 and Hope Road. The plans are part of a proposed $40 million plan to improve traffic flow in the area and improve access to Fort Monmouth.

A preliminary diagram was presented to the board at the meeting that roughly showed what the New Jersey Turnpike Authority plans to do at the intersection.

The main improvement at the Hope Road intersection would include a new ramp from the parkway north exit that would run between a neighboring hotel and the park and ride, and empty out onto Hope Road. Hope Road also would be widened north and south of Route 36, with new traffic signals installed.

Raczynski has said this would let drivers headed toward Hope Road avoid the Route 36 bottleneck that exists now from cars exiting the parkway and turning right onto Hope Road or taking the jughandle to go on Hope Road north.

Cars headed to Hope Road north would also take this new ramp south of Route 36 and then make a left onto Hope Road at the new light and proceed to cross over Route 36, without having to bother with the jughandle.

From this same area south of Route 36, there would also be a new lane that would take drivers headed toward the Monmouth Mall from Hope Road in Tinton Falls, through the woods and onto Route 36 east, completely avoiding the now-congested intersection of Hope Road and Route 36.

The existing ramps from the parkway south would also be widened and the jughandle would remain. 

For drivers heading south on the parkway who want to get to the western portion of the fort, there are two proposed ramps that will completely bypass the current Exit 105 which now empties onto Route 36. These drivers would now be able to bear right off the Parkway onto Wayside Road. According to the authority, this gives new access to the already existing Pearl Harbor and Tinton avenues and Route 18 in both directions.

This would be the second major road project in the Tinton Falls/Eatontown area as the New Jersey Department of Transportation just . The intersection improvements allow easier access to Route 35 from Route 36, and vice versa.