By John Burton
MIDDLETOWN – Beginning today the West Front Street Bridge connecting Red Bank and Middletown will be closed to motor vehicle traffic until approximately May 16 to complete construction of the new bridge.
During these final stages of the project on County Bridge S-17 pedestrians will be able to cross the bridge, while bicyclists will have to dismount and walk their bikes across the available span, according to county officials.
Drivers should plan alternative routes while work is being conducted for the next four months.
Detours will be posted. Westbound traffic from West Front Street in Red Bank will be directed north onto Rector Place to Highway 35 to Coopers Bridge, and onto Navesink River Road to Hubbard Avenue in Middletown. Eastbound traffic from West Front Street in Middletown will be detoured north on Hubbard Avenue to Navesink River Road to Highway 35 southbound on Coopers Bridge to Rector Place.
“Motorists should expect travel delays in the area while this work s completed,” said Monmouth County Freeholder Thomas Arnone in a released statement.
The county had undertaken replacing the existing approximately 93-year-old bridge spanning the Swimming River and connecting the township’s River Plaza section to Red Bank, because of age and disrepair.
For much of the project, the existing bridge remained accessible to traffic while the new structure was being built. Now, according to Arnone, workers have to close it to finish the new bridge prior to the Memorial Day weekend and begin demolition on the old one.
The new structure will be 480-feet long and 44-feet wide accommodating two 12-foot vehicular travel lanes, 6-foot sidewalks and 4-foot shoulders. The concrete sidewalks will provide handicap accessibility routes from Hubbard Avenue in Middletown and Rector Place/Shrewsbury Avenue on the Red Bank side.
Other improvements with the project will be the widening of the roadways leading to the bridge, improved storm water drainage and additional lighting, as well as such architectural enhancements as decorative light fixtures, recessed brick panel parapet with a ball and cap railing. The aim was to have this new structure complement the existing Coopers Bridge on Highway 35, spanning the Navesink River.
The project, overseen by the county engineering department with an estimated approximately $12 million price tag, is being paid for by federal transportation dollars.
The bridge has an average daily traffic flow of more than 17,000 vehicles, according to the county engineering department.
