The most obvious and visible work summer visitors and residents can expect to see on the $350 million Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Bridges project will be on the trestle bridges and their approaching roadways during the next few months, Daniel Triana, public information officer at the N.J. Department of Transportation, told The SandPaper in a recent update. Some traffic pattern changes may be necessary to complete the work, but two lanes will be maintained in each direction during peak hours. Any necessary lane closures will take place only during off-peak evening hours.

“Route 72 is vital to the tourist economy, and the normal complement of four travel lanes, two in each direction, will be maintained during construction in the summer months,” Triana said. “The centerpiece of this project involves the construction of a new $90 million bridge parallel to the existing one over Manahawkin Bay, providing the safety of a redundant route on or off the Island in the event that one of the bridges needs to be closed.

“The existing bay bridge, which is structurally deficient and functionally obsolete, will be closed and rehabilitated once the new bridge is built and opened to traffic,” he added. “This sequence will preserve the current two travel lanes in each direction during busy summer seasons. This project also will create inside and outside shoulders and a barrier-protected sidewalk along the north side of the existing bridge, providing safe access for pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Pier construction is complete, and the beams are being set for the new parallel bridge. Deck construction will begin shortly and continue throughout the summer.

Emergency work on the existing bridge structure was completed May 15 due to the discovery of a 6-foot-by 8-foot, irregularly shaped hole developing on the bridge deck. The right lane of the bridge was closed just west of Cedar Bonnet Island by NJDOT around 8:30 a.m. The roadway was repaired and reopened at approximately 5:30 p.m.

The emergency work was not related to the new bridge construction, Triana said. Construction is on schedule with no major deviations from the bridge work plan, he assured.

The project was started in 2013 and is expected to continue through 2020. The DOT is advising the public to slow down and pay attention while traveling through the construction zone.

— Kelley Anne Essinger

kelleyanne@thesandpaper.net

The Sandpaper Article by Maria Scandale and Eric Englund

Work on Schedule for 2020 Completion

Between now and 2020 when the $320 million Causeway Bridge project is done, its progress will be of utmost interest to area residents, who jammed the f rst of two update meetings held by the state Department of Transportation, in Ship Bottom Feb. 9.They learned that the new main bridge in the double-span system should be finished in May 2016, at which time traffic will be switched over to that new, southernmost span. In the next phase, the existing 56-year-old Causeway Bridge system alongside it will be rehabilitated, to eventually become the span for west-bound traffic.

Another key point of interest was that this spring, traffic flow will be temporarily reduced to one lane during construction. Project officials assured a questioning captain of the Surf City Fire Co. and EMS that two lanes will be restored by Memorial Day.The travel lanes, when eventually finished, will be 11 feet wide, rather than the existing 12 feet. That is to make room for a 6-foot sidewalk on the westbound side and to build bicycle accommodations. The design calls for wider outside shoulders on the twin Manahawkin Bay Bridges and 6-foot bike lanes on the trestle bridges.“Are you going to give driving lessons?” one woman quipped as she spoke with a project manager, Pankesh Patel, after the meeting.The shoulders are also designed to act as a third lane in an emergency or evacuation, under project plans.“Once it is all done, we’ll have two lanes on the new bridge heading eastbound, and two lanes on the existing rehabilitated bridge heading westbound,” Patel summarized the 2020 result.

As a quick review, the Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Bridges Project involves the construction of a new structure parallel to and south of the existing Manahawkin Bay Bridge, rehabilitation of the existing Manahawkin Bay Bridge, and the rehabilitation of three trestle bridges over Hilliards Thorofare, East Thorofare and West Thorofare.Folks came out in a rain-spitting wind to hear the details that centered on the upcoming phase of rehabilitating the East and West Thorofares. The improvements include pier cap rehabilitation, bearing retrofits, piling protection systems, new parapets, and repairing and resurfacing the bridge decks. That phase is scheduled to be finished in July 2017.

Anyone who did not get to the 2 p.m. informational meeting in Ship Bottom Borough Hall early did not get a seat and had to wait until a repeat afternoon briefing was given.“It’s standing room only, and there’s no room to stand,” announced one in a line of residents who decided to leave and either “read about it in the paper” or attend the evening session in Stafford Township.Patel and other project managers, engineers and representatives said the project is on schedule, and they gave details of the multi-phased construction.“ In May 2016, we switch the traffic onto the new bridge – and it may happen earlier, too – so, once we have the traffic detoured onto the new bridge, we’ll take the superstructure of the existing bridge off and replace it with a new, brand new superstructure,” he said.“That includes rehabilitating the existing bay bridge along with Hilliards Thorofare.” A detailed project description can be found by going to the DOT website at www.state.nj.us/transportation/ and typing “Manahawkin Bay Bridges Project” in the search line at the top right. Patel pointed out that the site includes photo galleries with detailed descriptions.

Currently, foundations are being built in the water and on the adjacent shore for the new, parallel Manahawkin Bay Bridge. The 16 hammer-head piers to support the new bridge are nearly complete, with only minor finishing work remaining. Cofferdams have been installed in the water to allow work to progress in the dry work zone within the cofferdams.

Among other commenters, Barnegat Light resident Shirley Alnutt raised an issue about “very poor” lighting making navigation at night diff cult through the curving work zone. She was told to submit that concern in writing on one of the comment sheets that were at the sign-in desk. Project spokesperson Martine Culbertson said reflectors are one option being considered.

Storm flooding conditions in Ship Bottom on Eighth and Ninth streets were raised by another questioner. Engineers said a pump station is one of the remedies being considered, but that end phase of the project “is still in the design stages.”

Mainland Aspects Covered at Evening Meeting: At the evening meeting in Stafford Township, discussion included environmental mitigations on the Cedar Bonnet Island section that are needed to comply with environmental permit conditions for the entire project. The DOT, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is restoring a previous dredge disposal facility at the Cedar Bonnet Island unit of the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. That phase of the work was also referred to as “Contract 5.”It will include wetland creation, mitigation of freshwater wetlands, intertidal/subtidal shallows and riparian impacts. Also included are public access improvements such as public parking and new interpretive pedestrian walking trails to provide improved access to the refuge and give residents and visitors additional passive recreation and tourism enhancements.In addition, two storm water basins would be retrofitted.Steve Balzano of Parsons Brinckerhoff, the bridge project design engineering firm, said that construction should begin within a month. The target time for completion is December 2017, Patel said.

It will be an attractive-looking area that people can enjoy,” said Balzano, who said the project would cost $7 million. “There is going to a 20-foot-high observation area which will give people a great view of Long Beach Island. We will also be planting a lot of shrubs and trees. There will be pavilions and benches.”

Holgate resident Tom Beaty had questioned this part of the bridge project at the Ship Bottom meeting.“It seems not enough thought is going into the maintenance of the mitigation project. To spend millions of dollars to rebuild 40 acres of landscaping and have no maintenance plan is ridiculous,” he summarized later. “Thousands of trees will die, and it will look horrible and be a waste of money. Fish and Wildlife has no staff for this project. This needs to be addressed!”Attendees with detailed concerns were told to write them on the comment sheets that were available on the sign-in table.

In other information brought up at the Stafford evening meeting, Route 72 will be widened by an extra eastbound and westbound lane by the Marsha Drive intersection. The new lanes will be approximately 700 feet long.“We’re doing that to make it easier for the cars to stack up in traffic, since during the summer that is a very busy intersection” said Joseph Mumber, chief bridge engineer for Parsons Brinckerhoff.

“It will create a better traffic flow and will make it easier for cars to maneuver if they want to turn off.”Stafford resident Nancy Fiamingo was concerned about pedestrian walkways heading west on the bridges to the mainland. She said because there was not enough room to safely build them along Route 72, the sidewalks would have to be built in Beach Haven West along Steven Drive, which closely runs parallel to the highway.“Those sidewalks would have to be built by the township, and that would be at the taxpayers’ expense,” she said. “There isn’t any safe place to put them along Route 72, so this will be an additional tax burden for us.”Mumber said because of safety conditions, there is no other alternative.“I think people don’t like the idea of more people walking in their community,” he said.

Stafford resident Sal Sorce said the age of the bridge made the project inevitable.“But no matter what work you do, you still have the problem of the bottleneck in Ship Bottom,” he said. “The bottom line is that all the cars going over the bridge to the Island will be backing up on Route 72 on weekends during the summer. No matter what they do with the bridges, the Ship Bottom situation isn’t going to change because you’re still going to have a lot of traffic.”