Like the rest of New Jersey, Red Bank may be on near-lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but work on a trio of closely watched municipal projects continues.Â
What’s Going On Here? Read on.Â
Construction fencing around the new restrooms and picnic tables at Eastside Park has come down, above. Below, installation of new parking meter posts is underway, as seen outside Danny’s restaurant on Bridge Avenue. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
• Among them is the creation of a play area and riverfront observation deck at the Bellhaven Natural Area, as seen last week in the top photo above.
Business Administrator Ziad Shehady told redbankgreen via email that there’s been “significant progress” on the project in recent weeks.
The 1.25-acre wetlands site overlooks the Swimming River at the western end of Locust Avenue.
• The trouble-plagued Eastside Park restroom project at the corner of Harrison Avenue and Mechanic Street is nearly complete, Shehady said last week, after construction fencing was removed.
“The bulk of the construction aspects of the project are complete,” he said. But before the facility is opened, the town plans to install a water refill station and finalize landscaping, he said.
• Now underway is prep work for the replacement of all on-street parking meters.
In anticipation of the delivery of new solar-powered meter heads, the public utilities department is replacing support poles “to ensure ADA compliance from a height perspective,” Shehady said.
The pole replacement work was “anticipated and budgeted” as part of the project, he said. At its most recent meeting, on March 11, the council authorized spending $213,000 on the new meters. The purchase is under the umbrella of a $3.2 million bond approved last year that also covers the costs of new kiosks, reconstruction work on the White Street and East Side parking lots and the construction of a new parking lot at Marine Park.
