Cross Keys Road Speed Reduction Implemented

The speed limit along Berlin-Cross Keys Road in Gloucester and Winslow townships is now officially 45 mph.

The 5 mph speed-limit reduction was implemented in the two townships last week, with 45 mph signs erected along the roadway.

The two Camden County towns join Gloucester County's Monroe and Washington townships in reducing the speed limit along Cross Keys Road from 50 mph to 45 mph.

Gloucester Township Police officials, along with their colleagues in Winslow, began exploring the speed-limit drop last year as just one part of the six-town Cross Keys Road Joint Safe Passage Initiative. In addition to Gloucester, Monroe, Washington and Winslow townships, Berlin and Pine Hill boroughs are participants.

After the township's engineering firm, Remington & Vernick, recommended the reduced speed limit, the township Council on Jan. 11 approved the ordinance calling for the change.

The Department of Transportation then signed off on the change, allowing the two townships to make the move last week.

A Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission study conducted in 2007 found that as many as 20,500 cars travel along Cross Keys Road between Sicklerville and Johnson roads, near the Atlantic City Expressway interchange, in a single 24-hour period. New commercial construction along Cross Keys Road has increased traffic to approximately 15,000 vehicles per day on the Gloucester Township portion of Cross Keys Road, the planning commission found.

Since the March 2011 launch of the Cross Keys Road Joint Safe Passage Initiative, Gloucester Township Police report a 25 percent reduction in car accidents.

The 5 mph speed-limit reduction is being hailed as yet another way to increase traffic safety along the heavily traveled roadway.