Improvements on Route 70 in Cherry Hill are long overdue as the landscape of the road has created hazards for drivers and has stayed the same throughout the growth of Cherry Hill. 

Mayor Bernie Platt has appointed the Cherry Hill Route 70 Task Force, a group of representatives and leaders in the Cherry Hill community, to analyze the problems with the road and come up with ways to make this main street a safer place for residents of Cherry Hill. 

Right now, more than 60,000 vehicles travel on this highway each day. In addition, there are hardly any sidewalks for pedestrians to walk on, putting them in a dangerous position.  Realizing that these types of problems faced the aging highway, Mayor Platt believed it was necessary to make major changes on the road, with safety improvements being his main priority. 

The focal goals of the Route 70 Task Force include developing new sidewalks in addition to pre-existing ones in an effort to encourage pedestrian travel and other alternative ways of traveling by making them feel safer on the road.  Also, the Force plans to minimize congestion as well as the hard-to-reach business locations by combining access points wherever possible. 

Not only is the group looking to fix the major problems due to the amount of cars that travel on the highway and the setup that has needed to be changed as Cherry Hill developed, but it is also attempting to improve the aesthetics of the area. This is being done in hopes of creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment as well as a promising future for the use of Route 70 and the Cherry Hill community.

So far, one million dollars have been invested in the renovations. On May 3, 2007, the Task Force finalized its recommendations after 120 days of analyzing the needs of the highway.  Recently, changes that will benefit members of the community with improved safety and other much needed enhancements to the aged highway have been initiated.