Expanded Jughandles Planned for Fischer Blvd., College Drive Intersections

A project to make left turns easier to accomplish will result in expanded jughandles at two Toms River intersections.

Work will begin next year on adding new turn lanes to the intersections of Fischer Boulevard and Hooper Avenue, and College Drive and Hooper Avenue, county officials said Monday.

Once the project is completed in 2015, motorists traveling on Fischer Boulevard wanting to turn left will continue straight across Hooper Avenue and follow the expanded jughandle, which will lead them directly into southbound Hooper Avenue.    

A similar change will be made at College Drive, where motorists exiting the college will continue straight into the jughandle onto Hooper Avenue north.    

The new travel lanes will be added to the sides of the existing jughandles at both intersections.    

"Left turns as they are today will no longer be allowed at either location," said Freeholder Director John P. Kelly.

The project includes signal upgrades which will allow the traffic lights to operate in two phases instead of three, resulting in more green time for drivers on Hooper Avenue.

Currently, both traffic lights are three-phase signals, with drivers on Hooper Avenue having to wait through separate green lights for east and westbound traffic at both intersections.

Also as part of the plan, U-turns will no long be permitted by northbound traffic at College Drive, but a left turn lane and cut-through will be added to Hooper Avenue near the entrance to Squire Village, a housing development just south of the college campus. Today, Squire Village residents traveling north on Hooper Avenue typically use the College Drive jughandle to reverse direction and reach their homes.

"We should see a significant improvement in traffic flow along Hooper Avenue," on the project is complete, said Kelly.

Hooper Avenue will also be widened to three lanes in each direction between the two traffic lights, a distance of about 2,000 feet, officials said.