Officials at the Casino Association of New Jersey and the Greater Atlantic City Chamber recently announced an independent traffic study will be commissioned to determine the effects of the planned Atlantic Avenue “road diet.”
The project will reduce the number of vehicle lanes to two from four, eliminate several left turns, add a bike lane on each side, increase parking and expand sidewalks to make it easier for pedestrians to cross Atlantic Avenue.
Casino officials, as well as residents, city leaders and business owners have expressed concern the road diet will cause gridlock and frustration.
At a recent meeting, Casino Association President and Resorts Casino Hotel President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Giannantonio said, “As you all know, the casino industry has been opposed to the road diet in its current form. We are working with the chamber commissioning a bona fide traffic study to look at this in a bigger picture format. By no way, shape or form are we opposed to improving roads, but it comes down to two lanes of vehicle travel in each direction versus one and a bike path. That’s been our opposition,”per the Press of Atlantic City.
Giannantonio and Greater Atlantic City Chamber President Michael Chait noted the city has done traffic counts at Atlantic Avenue intersections, but they said a more in-depth study is needed.
Drew Pavlich, project engineer at CME Associates, said, “The schedule looks like we are doing conduit and sidewalk work this summer, and paving later. We are doing everything we can to minimize impacts to access,” including possibly paving at night.
Pavlich said some sidewalks will be affected for a time from Maine Avenue to Tennessee Avenue, as underground fiber optic cable will be installed, but business access and pedestrian safety will be prioritized. He added no paving or striping will be done on Atlantic Avenue until after Labor Day, so drivers should not be inconvenienced this summer.
