Clifton Receives NJTPA Local Safety Program Grant for Road Safety Improvements to Lakeview Avenue

The New Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) is the federally authorized Metropolitan Planning Organization for the 13-county northern New Jersey region. Each year, they oversee over $2 billion in transportation improvement projects and provide a forum for interagency cooperation and public input.

Passaic County has received a $5,879,000 grant for improvements to a mile-long section of Lakeview Avenue, between Clifton Avenue and Crooks Avenue, in the City of Clifton. This grant was awarded through the NJTPA Local Safety Program (LSP), which supports the construction of cost-effective, high-impact safety improvements on county and local roadway facilities in the NJTPA region, using federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funds. The grant includes funding for preliminary engineering, design, construction, and construction inspection services. The improvements will focus on 15 intersections along the section of Lakeview Avenue and will include bicycle lanes, signal upgrades, high-visibility crosswalks, and curb extensions. Three intersections will have new traffic lights installed.

This grant comes as a result of a road safety audit (RSA) conducted for the area in October 2019. The complete RSA report can be found here. The RSA report states that portions of the section of Lakeview Avenue from Clifton Avenue to Market Street were identified on NJTPA’s Local Safety Program Network Screening list as high priority. This was based on information from the NJDOT crash database showing that 226 crashes occurred during the three-year period between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2017 (excluding pedestrians/cyclists) along the study area of Lakeview Avenue.  Additionally, the RSA report states that 14 pedestrian crashes occurred over the five-year period between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017. To see a list of other RSAs in our area, please visit https://www.njtpa.org/rsa.

Congressman Bill Pascrell was joined by John Bartlett, Passaic County Commissioner and Chair of the NJTPA, and Clifton Mayor Ray Grabowski, as well as other community leaders to announce this grant. The Passaic County Commissioner and Chair of the NJPTA put out a brief summary of the grant.

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