Photo by: Ryan Morrill
The old Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Bridge, which has helped residents and visitors cross over Barnegat Bay to Long Beach Island for many years, is finally going to be rehabilitated. Two lanes of traffic in each direction will be carried on the newly constructed bay bridge during rehabilitation of the old bridge. Construction is expected to be completed and the bridge to be reopened in June 2020. The reconditioned bridge will carry two westbound lanes, and the new bridge will carry two eastbound lanes.
A $63 million contract has been awarded to George Harms Construction Co. of Howell for the rehabilitation work, which also includes the Hilliards Thorofare Bridge at the western end of the Causeway. The rehabilitation will be conducted from west to east. Improvements to the thorofare bridge, which will be conducted in up to six stages, are equivalent to the work on the East and West thorofare bridges, including repairing and resurfacing the existing bridge deck, replacing the outside bay of the deck slab and repairing spalls on the existing pier caps.
The enhancements to the old bridge consist of pier cap rehabilitation; replacement of steel girders, deck slab, and parapets; installation of a new fender system; and scour protection for the existing abutments. At the completion of the final project in 2020, pedestrians will be able to cross the bridge via a 6-foot-wide sidewalk on the north side, which will include a safety barrier separating the walk from traffic.
Thirteen-foot-wide bike paths that can be utilized for vehicular traffic during evacuations will also be included on the north and south sides of both of the bridges. This will hopefully help save lives, Stafford Township Mayor John Spodofora, stated at a public forum on the bridge work held last week at the municipal building in Manahawkin. He noted all eastbound traffic disperses out of Stafford.
The $350 million federal project stretching from Stafford Township to Ship Bottom has been a long time coming. It was devised to enhance traffic flow during the busy summer months as well to ensure safety, especially during storm evacuations. Construction on the new, parallel Bay Bridge, which engineers said is now 99.9 percent complete, began back in 2013. Ongoing work has also consisted of mitigation on Cedar Bonnet Island, referred to locally as Bonnet Island, which, along with repairing the East and West thorofare bridges, is anticipated to be finished in December 2017.
For more information on the project, visit njcommuter.com.
Article printed from TheSandPaper