Westbound traffic was diverted from West Front Street onto Broad Street Tuesday evening, above, jamming up downtown Red Bank. Below, eastbound vehicles lined up on Monmouth Street. (Click to enlarge)
Work to replace a busted utility pole on busy West Front Street may not be completed until midday Wednesday, meaning motorists could face another glacial morning crawl through Red Bank.
A shutdown of a portion of West Front to enable JCP&L crews to replace the pole, which shattered during the blizzard Sunday night, led to massive traffic jams Tuesday morning, with inbound traffic backed up onto the Route 35/Cooper Bridge to Middletown.
By the evening commute, a repeat appeared in the making.
Traffic was heavy in both directions on Broad Street after a stretch of West Front Street was closed. (Click to enlarge)
Captain Darren McConnell of the Red Bank police department says the utility company informed him that the work may be completed by noon Wednesday. A spokesman for JCP&L did not respond to a request for information.
The detour compounded driving woes for motorists returning to work after a holiday weekend capped by a snowfall of more than two feet in the region.
Early Tuesday, some cars were still stranded where drivers had left them a the peak of the blizzard, impeding the ability of snowplows to clear streets.
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