Vehicles jockey for position making turns into and out of the Wawa on Route 88 in Brick, Nov. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Brick Township officials have been waiting since 2021 for a solution to a nagging traffic issue on Route 88, which they say has both created a hazard for drivers and held up the construction of a planned Popeyes fast food restaurant as a result.
The Wawa convenience store and gas station near the intersection of Route 88 and Jack Martin Boulevard opened in December 2021, and almost instantly, both motorists and police identified the ability to make left turns into and out of the shopping plaza as a safety issue as well as a condition that creates bottlenecks as vehicles jockey for position and try to squeeze past others waiting to make the left into the parking lot. Meanwhile, cars inside the Wawa plaza trying to make a left onto Route 88 must race across the highway during a short clear period, but before that have contributed to backups within the gas station itself.
The issue became so pronounced that, when the township’s planning board approved the construction of a Popeyes fast food restaurant next door to the Wawa, they conditioned the approval upon the state banning left turns into and out of the plaza.
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The proposed location of a Popeyes restaurant in Brick Township, N.J., Oct. 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Nearly three years later, state officials have told Shorebeat that an answer has finally been decided-upon after a long period of negotiations with developer Jack Morris, who owns the Wawa shopping center, and township officials who have consistently called on the state to impose the ban. The township council submitted an endorsement of the left-turn ban just days after Wawa opened and the traffic problems commenced. The township is unable to pass its own “no left turn” ordinance or place signs at the location since Route 88 is a state highway and under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Transportation.
“NJDOT is in the process of working with the developer to install signs prohibiting left turns from Route 88 eastbound into Wawa and from Wawa onto Route 88 eastbound,” agency spokesman Steve Schapiro told Shorebeat this week.
As part of construction of the new development, he said, the Wawa driveway will be widened and a concrete island installed that will help create a physical barrier to making left turns into and out of the driveway.
Access from Route 88 eastbound into Wawa – and from Wawa onto Route 88 eastbound – will be maintained at the second driveway farther away from the traffic signal at Jack Martin Boulevard, Schapiro said.
Now that a plan has been developed with Morris’ company, the change will pave the way for the Popeyes restaurant and drive-through to be added to the shopping center. The 2,340 square foot, 60-seat fast food restaurant would replace plans that had originally been approved to build a bank. The Popeyes location will include a “double stacked” drive through. It was approved in December 2022 in a 4-3 vote.
Jack Martin Boulevard, Brick, N.J. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
Vehicles jockey for position making turns into and out of the Wawa on Route 88 in Brick, Nov. 2021. (Photo: Daniel Nee)
The approval also requires Morris, the developer, to install angled curbing to physically prevent vehicles from making illegal turns onto the property, which is in line with the state’s plan.
The address of the Popeyes would be marked as 1906 Route 88, the same as the Wawa that opened in 2021. The rear of the property includes the remainder of the Laurelton Mobile Home Park, which is also owned by Morris. At one time, an additional 124-seat restaurant was also proposed for the site alongside the now-abandoned bank proposal, however there has been no movement on that aspect of the property’s development.
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