Residents press council for faster fixes at Bordentown Avenue–Route 9 intersection; DOT design years away

Residents of Kenneth Avenue and Bordentown Avenue told the council they are alarmed by frequent crashes and unsafe conditions where local streets meet Route 9, and they presented a petition seeking faster action. The matter is locally important because speakers described daily hazards for drivers, pedestrians and school buses, and they urged a quicker timeline than the multi‑agency design schedule recorded on the record. Resident Ed Hamlin said he collected more than 65 signatures and described multiple accidents at the intersection. "Something gotta get done," he told the council. Don Taylor, who lives at 1131 Bordentown Avenue, said backing out of his driveway is a repeated safety risk: "I roll the dice every time I'm back out of my driveway." Borough staff told speakers that the state Department of Transportation and the county have been studying the corridor for years and that preliminary engineering is underway. Jay Cornell (borough engineer) said the state is in a preliminary design phase for improvements that will include major changes — possibly roundabouts and traffic signals — and that the DOT’s current schedule shows construction targeted around 2030 because of detailed engineering, right‑of‑way work and funding cycles. "Their time frame is starting construction in 02/2030," Cornell said on the record. Councilmembers acknowledged residents’ safety concerns and said enforcement and short‑term actions could be pursued through the police department while the long‑term DOT project proceeds. The mayor asked staff to notify petitioners of progress and to pursue legislative contacts and enforcement options; the borough offered to put residents on a notification list for project updates. No municipal capital appropriation or binding change to rights‑of‑way was approved at the meeting; the DOT and county retain project control. The borough committed to continued advocacy and to ask state representatives to seek schedule acceleration, but staff cautioned that multiple jurisdictions and required studies limit how rapidly the work can be advanced. Speakers quoted in this article include residents who presented petitions and borough engineers and staff who described the DOT schedule; all quotations are taken from the meeting transcript.