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Resident Anthony Delia asks Salem County to move guardrail he says blocks his driveway
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Summary
Anthony Delia testified that a guardrail installed in June 2024 was misplaced, blocking access to his property; he says county engineers used inflated traffic numbers and have not provided the calculations he requested. The commission took no formal action during the meeting.
Resident Anthony Delia told the Salem County Board of County Commissioners that a guardrail installed in June 2024 was placed incorrectly and is preventing large deliveries and routine maintenance at his home.
Delia, who identified himself at the meeting as Anthony Delia of 376 Halloway Avenue Road, said he repeatedly asked the Salem County Road Department and county engineers to move the rail after the county repaved the roadway. He said engineers told him the rail met New Jersey Department of Transportation standards but refused to share the calculations he requested. "They guessed. They picked a random number," Delia said, arguing the county used an exaggerated average daily traffic figure rather than the actual traffic study data collected for the project.
The dispute, Delia said, has persisted through multiple contacts and meetings. He gave a timeline of exchanges: initial outreach in June 2024, follow-ups in July 2024 when county engineers told him the rail was compliant, and further meetings and emails through March 2025. Delia said the rail was shifted roughly 30 feet west of its prior location and that he has been unable to receive large truck deliveries for firewood, topsoil and stone. "I need my front yard back now, not next year, not whenever it happens," he said.
Delia told commissioners that he asked county engineers for the traffic calculations and the new design plans multiple times but received little substantive response. He said one county staff member and a contractor raised concerns about liability and cost exposure to the county if the rail was moved before the state closed out its contract, but Delia said the county27s own traffic study data would still produce a compliant rail length if used.
A second resident at Barnes Point voiced support for Delia and urged county leadership to seek an answer from the road department. During the meeting record, the chair thanked Delia for his comments but the commission did not take any formal vote or make a recorded direction on the guardrail during the session.
The issue involves the Salem County Road Department, named county engineers (Delia referenced persons he identified in email exchanges as Mr. Lawrie, Mr. Seaver, Mr. Seager and Mr. McKelvey) and the New Jersey Department of Transportation standards referenced in the discussion. The meeting transcript does not include a detailed technical rebuttal from county engineers on the record during the public comment period, nor a formal motion to alter the guardrail placement.
Next procedural steps were not announced at the meeting. Delia said he had documented emails and traffic calculations and offered to provide them to county officials; the transcript shows no recorded timeline for when the county would act.
(Reporting note: quotes and claims in this article are drawn from public comment by Anthony Delia during the Salem County Board of County Commissioners meeting; the transcript records Delia27s characterization of county calculations and timeline but does not contain an on-the-record engineering response or a formal county finding.)
