By JOHN T. WARD

Monmouth County officials say they have solved the daunting sidewalk-to-nowhere conundrum they faced in designing a new bridge to connect Red Bank and Middletown at West Front Street.

The fix? Create a walk-and-bike path that will bypass the narrow rail trestle on the Red Bank side, Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore said Wednesday.

In what was billed as a preview of a fuller public presentation to come in the spring, Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore told Red Bank’s mayor and council that the revised plan for the new Hubbards Bridge also calls for a construction timetable that will detour traffic around the span for just three or four months of the projected 18-to-24-month buildout.

And when it’s all done, the borough will end up with a new parcel of green space overlooking the upper Navesink River, he said.

The new span, scheduled to go out for bid to contractors in the fall, is to replace a “temporary” steel span installed a decade ago, which is to be re-used elsewhere, Ettore said. Construction is expected to begin in early 2013, with at least one lane of the existing bridge remaining open, except for about four months toward the end of the project, when traffic will be routed to the nearby Cooper’s Bridge on Route 35.

That’s possible, he said, because the new bridge, while anchoring in the same places as the existing one, will be built slightly north of the current span.

The job is expected to cost in the vicinity of $12 million, and will be paid for completely by federal funding, Ettore said.

Ettore’s presentation was an update on one he gave in September, 2009, covered here by redbankgreen. That plan remains in effect, but with some new features.

• As previously proposed, the new two-lane bridge will have four-foot-wide shoulders and six-foot sidewalks on both sides. But under the former plan, the southern sidewalk was to have come to an abrupt end on the Red Bank side, because the narrowness of the train trestle there prohibited it from continuing to Shrewsbury Avenue. That would have forced walkers and bikers to cross the heavily trafficked bridge itself.

The solution, Ettore said, is for the county to acquire a strip of land adjoining the New Jersey Transit rail line from Red Bank Marina for the creation of a stepped series of ramps leading up to the railroad grade crossing on Shrewsbury Avenue. The ramps will comply with Americans with Disabilities Act standards for accessibility, he said.

“The biggest challenge is the grade,” he told reporters afterward. The sloping ramps will be interspersed with stretches of landing, he said.

The county hopes to acquire the land through negotiation from the marina’s owner. “He’s, unfortunately, severely impacted” by the project, Ettore said.

• Because a retaining wall alongside a residential property at the northwest corner of West Front and Rector Place was causing sight-line issues, the county has already acquired that property and plans to demolish the house there, Ettore said. The retaining wall will be removed and the property will be regraded to eliminate the issues, he said.

“The ability of the county to acquire that, we feel, is going to be a huge benefit to the 17,500 vehicles that cross that bridge every day,” he said.

When the project is completed, the parcel, less than a half acre in size, which has access to the riverfront beneath an adjoining rail bridge, will be deeded over to the borough for use as open space, Ettore said.

• The full closure of the existing span is expected to occur in early 2014, after the Christmas holidays of 2013, and in expectation of the bridge reopening before the start of the summer season, Ettore told the council. Afterward, he acknowledged to reporters that such a timetable would require the job to be completed in 18 months or less, rather than 24, and said the county was shooting for a closure period between February and April of 2014.

A public review session, with full construction drawing and a question-and-answer session, will be held, possibly at borough hall, sometime in April, Ettore said.

Elected officials praised the plan, and Ettore’s office for working with borough officials and keeping them apprised of changes. Mayor Pasquale Menna was effusive in thanking Ettore for minimizing the shutdown period, for his concern about green space, and for the architecture of the bridge, which will pick up on the brick and antique lamppost elements used by the state on the Cooper’s Bridge.

Councilman Mike DuPont said the plan “seems to promote not only transportation, but to create some pedestrian walkways and bikeways, with access to and from the river.”

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Though Fair Haven’s Republican committee has suggested three candidates to fill the council seat left empty by John Lehnert, who committed suicide last week, the borough council has no intention of filling the spot on an interim basis, Mayor Mike Halfacre tells redbankgreen.

In fact, GOP officials had already begun the process of replacing Lehnert on the November 2 ballot after Lehnert told Halfacre about three weeks ago that he was ending his re-election bid, Halfacre says. Lehnert’s withdrawal had not previously been publicly disclosed.

“I think out of respect for John we should leave the seat vacant until the end of his term” on December 31, Halfacre said.

Halfacre said Lehnert told him about three weeks ago that a new job he was taking would not allow him enough time to serve as a councilman.

Lehnert had recently graduated from New York Law School and was awaiting the results of the bar exam, which he took in July, Halfacre said. Lehnert had served 14 years on the Fair Haven police force before retiring in 2006, when he suffered an arm injury. He won election in 2007 and was sworn in as councilman in January, 2008.

Rowland Wilhelm was put on the ballot shortly after Lehnert made his decision not to run, Halfacre said. Wilhelm and Council President Jon Peters will run uncontested on November 2.

The GOP committee submitted Eric Jaeger, Susan Sorensen and Wilhelm to the council to fill Lehnert’s spot on an interim basis.

Having safeguarded a borough-owned riverfront property from sale and possible development last year, Cindy Burnham went to the Red Bank Council earlier this week hoping to get quick approval for a name for the parcel:

River Cove Waterfront Path.

Burnham says the site was identified as ‘River Cove’ on deeds she uncovered as part of her research into the history of the site. The ‘path’ part connotes the walkway Burnham and other volunteers hacked out of the weeds at the site to the bank of the Navesink River — the only place in the borough where someone can get direct and easy access to the waterway.

Her aim was to get a quick OK for the name and clearance to erect a sign and two benches on the property in time for a self-imposed April deadline — an opening ceremony at the start of the kayaking and canoeing season.

But Burnham’s efforts turned to evident exasperation, and later embarrassment, when the question was kicked over to the Parks & Rec committee for discussion and Councilwoman Juanita Lewis — the liaison to the committee — suggested letting the children of Red Bank take a crack at coming up with a name.

“Oh come on, this is my baby,” Burnham said while standing at the microphone addressing the council.

“This really is a little bigger than you,” replied Councilwoman Sharon Lee.

Afterward, Burnham — who, like Lewis, is a former board of education member — told redbankgreen that her eagerness to move the project forward got the best of her, and that she thinks it a “terrific idea” to put it out to the kids.

Lewis tells us the Parks & Rec committee met last night and agreed to open the naming contest to students at the primary, middle and charter schools.

“I think it’s good to have community input, and kids can come up with good ideas,” she says.

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Charged in the theft was Herold’s 29-year-old son, Robert F. Herold, who is known as Frankie. Contrary to what the younger man told Red Bank police, he was not an employee of The Fence Guys at the time of the arrest, the older man says. Though Frankie Herold has worked for the company in the past, he has not done so for several months, according to his father.

In no way way the younger Herold acting on behalf of The Fence Guys at the time of his arrest, says Robert A. Herold.

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