Friday, June 19, 2026
A close-up view of a drawing resented for the proposed roundabout at the intersection of Stokes and Willow Grove Roads in Shamong Township. Photo provided
SHAMONG—A contentious application by Burlington County seeking Pinelands Commission approval to install a roundabout/traffic circle at the intersection of Stokes and Willow Grove roads in Shamong Township has been approved in a 11-0 commission vote that occurred on June 12, despite Pinelands Commissioner Deborah Buzby-Cope recognizing the state agency’s voting members are “taking a lot of heat for this.”
At a Burlington County Board of Commissioners meeting held two days prior to the Pinelands Commission vote, a small, but raucous crowd of Shamong residents (encouraged to attend the session by Shamong’s deputy mayor, Brian Woods) showed up to voice their displeasure with the county’s plan, but the county commissioners maintained they will not be backing away from the proposal.
“It was identified as the most dangerous intersection in the county,” claimed County Commissioner Tyler Burrell. “And on our watch, we are not going to let that intersection be the most dangerous. We are going to take proactive steps to ensure the safety of our residents. And that is what you want your elected officials to do.”
He then pondered if those opposing the project “want us to turn a blind eye to a dangerous intersection?”
County Engineer Joseph T. Brickley, during the later Pinelands Commission session, identified it as being deemed the seventh most dangerous intersection in the county by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, which he explained is funding the Shamong project, and Burrell, at another point during the earlier county meeting recognized it as simply one of the most dangerous intersections – but Burrell’s claim at one point that it is the most dangerous was picked up on by a Shamong resident who called this newspaper to dispute it, repeatedly claiming internet research shows “it’s not.”
(Burrell, when later asked about the discrepancy, provided this statement: The intersection of Route 541 and Willow Grove Road was identified by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) as one of the most dangerous in Burlington County and the entire nine-county region of South Jersey/Greater Philadelphia region based on accident records [specifically it was ranked 4th most dangerous in Burlington County and the 17th most dangerous in DVRPC’s territory. See attached report.] Your newspaper even documented the danger, reporting that there were three accidents within five days at the intersection (https://issuu.com/pinebarrenstribune/docs/july-28-2018 ). It cannot be disputed that the intersection is among the most dangerous in the county.
A modern roundabout was identified as the best possible safety improvement because it provides a proven accident counter-measure that forces vehicles to slow down and pay attention as they navigate the intersection. No sign or traffic signal can have the same proven impact, which is why the majority on the Shamong Township Committee voted 4-1 to endorse the project in 2019. In the years since, New Jersey Department of Transportation traffic data shows accidents continue to occur at the intersection, including 27 right-angle crashes from 2019 through 2025.
Burlington County Central Communications reports also documented more than 60 emergency 911 calls about accidents at the intersection since 2020.
Our Board is committed to ensuring Burlington County roads and intersections are as safe as we can possibly make them. A roundabout can prevent a tragedy from occurring like no other improvement. That’s why the federal government supported using federal tax dollars to build one at this location; it’s why the Pinelands Commission unanimously approved the project, and it is why our board continues to support making this proven public safety improvement.)
Dr. Felicia Hopson, director of the county commissioners’ board, said she “stands with my colleague, Commissioner Burrell,” contending that the elected officials have to look at issues “from a very different lens” than that of the public, acknowledging disagreement with their decisions has been voiced to the county commissioners personally when they are at Wawa, the hairdresser or barbershop.
“We hear it,” she said. “We see it. We feel it.”
The Pinelands commissioners did not swiftly give the county the greenlight to proceed with the project, despite the agency’s staff having maintained in an earlier letter that the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan’s standards and regulations, for the most part, do not provide the agency with jurisdiction over the public’s concerns they have with the project such as why other alternatives weren’t implemented first at the corner before consideration of a roundabout, or that the traffic study evaluating the intersection was done nine years ago and traffic patterns in the area may have since shifted given the closure of the Atco Dragway.
The Pinelands Commission held an executive session mid-meeting prior to it giving the approval, and when the Pinelands commissioners came out of their closed session, it was announced that the closed-door session sought “legal advice” from the agency’s counsel on the application.
The various Pinelands commissioners then questioned Brickley at length.
Brickley acknowledged that “yes, the traffic study was done in advance of the closing of Atco,” or in 2017, but maintained, “at the end of the day, the underlying driving force of this project is – and I can’t stress it enough – it is a low volume, high crash” intersection.
“For the amount of cars that go through that intersection, there is an enormous amount of crashes, right angle crashes,” Brickley maintained.
He further maintained that “up-to-date information” has since been obtained from both the Burlington County 911 Center and state Department of Transportation, which he claims have not shown a reduction in such crashes being associated with the closure of Atco.
In fact, according to Brickley, “data” the county has compiled reportedly shows that 2024 saw the “one of the highest crash times we have had” at the intersection.
The county engineer asserted “there is no indication that we are off” on the findings of the 2017 study.
While no immediate plans have been announced to redevelop Atco, Brickley suggested that if Atco were to be redeveloped, “it likely” would result in an “increase in traffic,” contending, “this safety countermeasure, based on its ability to handle a large volume of cars, if necessary, would still be completely applicable.”
During a public hearing held by the Pinelands Commission last month, residents joined with local and appointed officials from Shamong in questioning why a four-way stop intersection, blinking light, traffic light or reduction in the speed limit leading up to the corner at issue are some alternatives that the county has not attempted to implement prior to proceeding with a roundabout.
Brickley, in appearing to answer those who raised such alternatives, declared, “those are traffic control measures” and “they are not safety countermeasures.”
He maintained there is “evidence” that motorists are already “not paying attention to those stop signs” that are currently at the two-way stop intersection.
And therefore, he added, there is the “belief” that a blinking light would see the same response from motorists.
One Pinelands commissioner, Jerome H. Irick, asked about whether simply reducing the speed in the area of the concern would reduce the number of crashes at the site, to which Brickley responded, “that is not a consideration for reduction on right-angle current crashes.”
But Irick observed that the 2017 study showed that the rate of speed traveled by motorists on Stokes Road was posing an issue at the corner with reaction and distance times, before inquiring, “What effort has the county made to reduce the speed on Stokes Road?” (Given that nine years have since passed from when the study was first conducted.)
“That is why this safety countermeasure is so applicable here,” answered Brickley in part. “What causes the right-angle crash? Speed and distance.”
With a “modern roundabout,” the county engineer added, it is “tough” to travel at a high rate of speed because “you have got to get down to the operational speed of 25 miles an hour, which there will be advance notice as folks are approaching the roundabout.”
He added of a roundabout “this is why their geometry is so effective” and that “in a normal two-way, or four-way stop, intersection there are 32 points of conflict” but “in a modern roundabout there are only eight.”
“And if there are crashes, they are skids because everyone is kind of moving on a tangent,” Brickley noted.
Irick, in observing an absence of a direct answer to his original question, suggested the figure from the 2017 study showing an average speed of 57 mph on Stokes Road raises the concern that a motorist could “run into the roundabout at a high rate of speed.”
“I am somewhat concerned that the county made no effort to reduce the speed on Stokes Road,” the Pinelands commissioner said.
Brickley responded that he is not in the cars of motorists, and therefore, “I can’t make you slow down,” before suggesting the low-lying, flat terrain of the area is equivalent to that found on the Turnpike where motorists “get blown off the road,” declaring, “That is what happens in situations like this.”
“That is why these modern roundabouts are so effective as a safety countermeasure because you have to slow down,” Brickley maintained.
Lowering the speed, he further maintained, will be accomplished by “reducing speed coming into the roundabout” and “changing the geometry to make people put two hands on the wheel.”
Buzby-Cope, in raising another intersection in the county that has since seen a roundabout installed, questioned whether a light had ever been installed there first, causing Brickley to contend “we had deployed a flashing light out there and it didn’t work,” recounting a fatality at the corner, calling it “the worst day of my career” that “actually corresponds to the last time I was ever in front of you.”
The former mayor of Bass River Township recounted requests by her town to install a traffic light at an intersection, “but we never got it even though there were several deaths,” explaining having been told there is a formula based on the number of deaths to warrant a traffic light.
Brickley responded that “even serious injuries” are “enough for me to have something worked out” for an intersection.
Buzby-Cope inquired again as to why no traffic light was put at the intersection in Bass River, before contending, “I think that is why we are taking a lot of heat for this,” or that other alternatives are not being explored.
Brickley responded there is a “warrant analysis” one has to do to “deploy a traffic signal,” claiming “this did not meet the requirements of a warrant analysis to deploy a traffic signal.”
“I can’t stress enough that your stop signs, flashing lights – any other type of intersection control traffic signals, they are traffic control devices,” the engineer said. “This is a safety countermeasure.”
The county engineer added that “although there is a reasonable or fairly significant cost associated with this, deploying traffic signals is a million dollars” and that is too much of a cost for something “we are fairly confident is not going to work.”
Traffic signals, he contended, “don’t stop the crashes,” suggesting that is why two states now require government agencies prove a roundabout won’t work as an initial step “before you consider anything else.”
Brickley then maintained of a roundabout that it will “continue to work when the power goes out,” including during a hurricane or snowstorm (whereas a traffic light could stop working should it lose power).
Buzby-Cope offered her interpretation of Brickley’s comments that “you are going to be doing more of these throughout the county,” to which Brickley responded, “If we can deploy them, it meets the warrants and then we can get the funding.”
(Earlier in the Pinelands Commission meeting, it was explained that the proposed Shamong roundabout is a project being funded through the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and there are six operational roundabouts currently in Burlington County, with four to five more planned, so far, in the coming years.)
“This is not a traffic control,” Brickley said. “We are not worried about getting cars to the intersection. What we are worried about doing is keeping folks from making bad decisions that hurt each other, as the one commissioner pointed out about the speed coming into.”
The Pinelands Commission would not let concerned members of the public speak on the topic following Brickley’s presentation, holding to a long-held policy that public comments on an application must occur during a designated period/meeting, with that having occurred in May. That too resulted in a phone call being placed to this newspaper by a resident taking issue with such a policy, with the resident declaring repeatedly, “They wouldn’t let me speak!”
Four of the 15 Pinelands commissioners were absent for the June 12 vote, and while all 11 who were present voted in the affirmative, Irick voiced he is “a little disappointed that additional considerations weren’t made to slow traffic on Stokes Road.”
The Shamong Township Committee’s June 9 meeting also became largely devoted to this topic, with the committee asked, “What are we thinking about in putting a circle in a small town like Shamong?”
It led Di Croce to call for residents who are opposed to the project to attend the Pinelands Commission meeting of June 12, and in a rare break from the mayor, Woods contended it would be more effective for residents to attend the county commissioners’ meeting as it is the county that is proposing the project.
In putting that argument aside, Di Croce pointed out that none of the current township committee members were on the local governing body when the county had approached it for a vote of support (which passed), “other than me, and I voted against the circle.”
Di Croce then claimed the county “tried to pressure me” to vote in favor of the project at the time, having recounted initially being told it was going to cost $20 million, but that the cost estimate was later reduced to $2 million.
He recognized “there are accidents there,” and “we had to do something” in asking the county to study the corner, before pointing out it is “not a Shamong road, it is a county road,” and therefore, “we can’t put our own lights up and we can’t put up a bigger stop sign.”
The prior township committee’s decision to go along with the county’s suggestion was raised by Burrell at the June 10 county commissioners’ meeting as part of the justification for moving ahead for the project.
Township Attorney Doug Heinold, the previous evening at the township committee session, explained that it was the result of a legal position taken “that if we blocked the county’s intentions, they would take the position that any liability associated with accidents at the intersection would be now the responsibility of Shamong Township.”
Woods, however, said, “I don’t even know how we could block it” if the township committee had even wanted to do so at the time given the roads in question belong to the county.
Nevertheless, Di Croce claimed, “There are 10 different things that we could do there,” in contending there are various alternatives.
Di Croce vowed during the latest township committee session that he is “going to do everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t occur at this intersection,” but then at another point, in addressing whether he, as also being a private attorney, would consider filing a pro bono suit, declared, “My cup is full. I don’t think I could put another drop in. Otherwise, I would do it.”
One resident claimed to have already filed an appeal with the Pinelands Commission, with Di Croce expressing his optimism it “would slow the process” that has been ongoing since 2019 (Brickley contended it would typically take three or four years to undertake a process for a roundabout, but recognized the Coronavirus pandemic in this case had extended the timeframe out.)
“We don’t need a circle there,” the mayor added, equating the use of federal dollars for the project to a “scam” and claiming, “it is not needed” and “won’t cure the problem.
But according to Brickley, “this (‘modern roundabout’) is to prevent someone from being seriously injured or killed.”
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