By Philip Sean Curran
Construction of a new county bridge connecting Rumson and Sea Bright is slated to start in the spring of 2021 and take an estimated 24 months to complete, in a federally funded job scheduled to avoid disrupting Shore traffic.
The plan is to replace the current bridge, built in 1950, that spans the Shrewsbury River. Deemed structurally deficient, the old bridge on Rumson Road is safe to drive over and inspected annually, but it is has outlived its useful lifespan, according to the county.
The new bridge project is in the final design phase, county engineer Joe Ettore said.
“In final design, there are elements that are yet to be determined,” he said. “And that dictates when the project can be bid and how long it will take to construct.”
The county intends to have a series of information sessions in the fall and again in the early part of 2020, said Thomas A. Arnone, Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders director.
The old bridge will remain open during construction, Ettore said. The transition from the old bridge to the new one will not happen during the peak beach season, when anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles travel the bridge daily.
“The county has done a really good job of including both towns in the process from the beginning,” said Thomas S. Rogers, Rumson borough administrator. “At some point, obviously, the traffic’s going to have to be diverted over to the new bridge, so there will be a closure. But the county has assured us that closure would take place in the off-season.”
The current bridge, which will be demolished after the new one opens, was built at a time when bridges were designed to have a service life of about 50 years, Ettore said.
“So we’re obviously well beyond that,” he said of a bridge that was deemed functionally obsolete and downgraded to a 15-ton low-carrying capacity.
Demolition of the old structure will take about six months, Ettore said.
Overall, the entire project is expected to cost around $80 million, all of which is funded through the federal government. The largest chunk of that total is the new bridge itself at an estimated $63 million.
“Federal authorization to receive funding is anticipated by fall 2020,” Arnone said.
Like the current bridge, the new bridge will have one lane of traffic in each direction, but will feature wider sidewalks and shoulders and be located on the south side of the current structure. As part of the project, the county will look to acquire needed right-of-way, including negotiating with the owner of a property on Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright where a Dunkin’ is located.
The freeholders last week gave the green light to the right-of-way acquisition process, Ettore said. It is not clear yet whether all or some of the property will be bought by the county.
“The physical construction (of the bridge) does not require the complete acquisition of that property,” Ettore said. “That’s really a matter of negotiations with the property owner.”
James Barry, who owns a gym in the building on that property, said he supports having a new bridge, so long as it does not mean businesses have to close.
Editor’s Note, April 1: The first community stakeholders meeting has been scheduled for Weds., April 10 from 10 a.m. – noon at the Sea Bright Beach Pavilion, 3rd floor, 1097 Ocean Ave. in Sea Bright. RSVP to Martine Culbertson, Community Involvement Facilitator at 856-795-8485.
This article was first published in the March 28-April 3, 2019 print edition of The Two River Times.
