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“Traffic will be difficult this summer,” Mayor Lou Lamatina said. “The work is going to be disruptive, but it’s much needed and finally happening.”
The project has been on the county’s drawing board for 59 years, according to Borough Administrator Robert Hoffmann. Once completed, it will improve the flow of traffic through the business district.
Highlights include installing a new traffic light at the corner of Kinderkamack and Lincoln Boulevard. Two existing lights— where Kinderkamack intersects Linwood Avenue and Ackerman Avenue — will be replaced.
The work is estimated to take nine months to a year, Hoffmann said.
“They have to fabricate big aluminum cantilevered structures from which the traffic lights will hang,” he explained. “They’re custom made for each intersection.”
Digital lights with electronic eyes will be installed. New sensors in the ground will sense how far cars are backing up.
“They’re going to link the three lights together so that when traffic gets heavy on Kinderkamack Road, the lights can stay green longer,” Hoffman saidd.
Other improvements include linking the lights to the gate at the NJ Transit railroad crossing and making safety upgrades to the railroad gates. In that area, Kinderkamack Road will be widened and realigned.
“You’ll have north-south traffic,” Hoffman said, “but you’ll also have turning lanes.”
Improvements also will be made to Linwood Avenue near Boston Market, where there will be a righthand turn land as well as a straight-ahead lane.
The Kinderkamack Road improvement work is a joint project of Emerson, Bergen County, and NJTransit.
Some 40,000 vehicles travel on Kinderkamack Road in Emerson daily, according to county studies.
CLICK BELOW for an artist's rendering of the project.
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