RED BANK: JON STEWART STAR-POWERS LUNCH
Comedian Jon Stewart brought some star power to lunchtime at the Count Basie Center for the Arts Wednesday.
SEA BRIGHT: DONOVAN’S REBUILD BEGINS
Obliterated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and revived last summer as an open-air bar (seen at right), Sea Bright’s Donovan’s Reef is finally on track to having a permanent home again, NJ.com reports. The oceanfront watering hole is two weeks into a construction project that’s estimated to take about 10 months, the news site reports.
“I’m looking forward to the return of a Donovan’s that, like the rest of the new Seas Bright, is built to last,” Mayor Dina Long told NJ.com. “Donovan’s is an integral piece of the Sea Bright fabric. Without Donovan’s in Sea Bright, it feels like something’s missing.” (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK-M’TOWN: BRIDGE PAVING DELAYED
So, how’s the final paving of Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown going? It’s not, apparently.
Contrary to multiple alerts about overnight closings from Monmouth County, which owns the bridge, as well as from the two towns the bridge connects, paving work that was to have been done this week hasn’t been, with the latest postponement occurring on Thursday.
A county spokeswoman offered no reason for the inactivity, but said the county is on track to complete all work on the new West Front Street span by the end of April. Meantime, the overnight closures for the paving work have not yet been rescheduled, she said. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK-M’TOWN: BRIDGE WORK NEARS END
The paving of Hubbard’s Bridge on West Front Street between Red Bank and Middletown will require an additional night of closure between 8 p.m. Thursday and 6 a.m. Friday, according to an alert from Red Bank borough. Monmouth County officials had previously expected the work to be finished Wednesday night. Motorists are advised to plan alternate routes.
RED BANK-M’TOWN: BRIDGE WORK PLANNED
Hubbard’s Bridge on West Front Street between Red Bank and Middletown will be closed for paving from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to an alert from Red Bank borough. Motorists are advised to plan alternate routes. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
SEA BRIGHT: MAN OK AFTER FALL FROM ROOF
A worker was reported to be OK after he fell from the roof of the McLoone’s Rum Runner restaurant under construction in Sea Bright Thursday, police Chief John Sorrentino tells redbankgreen.
Michael Cruz, whose name and town of residence were not immediately available, fell an estimated 30-to-40 feet in the accident, Sorrentino said.
RED BANK: GAS LEAK CAPPED
Responding to a gas leak reported shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday at the intersection of Rector Place and West Front Street in Red Bank, a crew from New Jersey Natural Gas Company stopped the leak at 5:44 p.m. Details about the incident were not immediately available. The Red Bank Fire Department also responded.
The intersection is one of two now closed to traffic for reconstruction in conjunction with utility work on the new Hubbard’s Bridge that has detours in place for two-to-three weeks, causing significant traffic delays. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
NEW BRIDGE OPENS JUST IN TIME FOR SUMMER
The first few cars of eastbound traffic head toward Red Bank over the the new West Front Street bridge between Red Bank and Middletown Monday morning. Below, Red Bank Marina owner Steve Remaley with Red Bank Councilman Mike DuPont. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Slightly over budget but on time, the new West Front Street bridge linking Red Bank and Middletown opened Monday morning, replacing a clanging “temporary” structure amid forecasts that it might last for 75 or more years.
Though cosmetic work on the bridge will continue for several weeks, the opening – on the cusp of the summer season, and with a temporary closure of the nearby Oceanic Bridge about to begin – marked a victory against a ticking clock, Freeholder Tom Arnone told redbankgreen.
“It was all-hands-on” to get the bridge open after a five-month closure, he said.
HUBBARD’S BRIDGE: NOT DONE, BUT READY
As seen in these photos taken Sunday afternoon, the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown still has a punchlist of unfinished details, such as the installation of decorative lamps, as seen at right. Still, the span is slated to open Monday with a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting on the Middletown side, Monmouth County officials said Friday.
Above is a view from the Middletown side, including a new “overheight vehicle” warning drivers of trucks and other large vehicles of the 10-foot, 11-inch trestle clearance on the Red Bank side that has claimed many a truck roof. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
NEW BRIDGE OPENS TO FOOT TRAFFIC & BIKES
An unofficial count put runner Julie Buffardi of Red Bank, above, as the fourth pedestrian to cross the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown after it was opened to pedestrians and bicyclists Saturday afternoon.
The span is slated to open Monday with a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting on the Middletown side, Monmouth County officials said Friday. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
NEW BRIDGE TO OPEN MONDAY… OR SOONER?
After nearly five months of detours affecting thousands of commuters, the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown is slated to open Monday with a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting on the Middletown side, Monmouth County officials said Friday.
A worker on the site told redbankgreen that the new span – shown at right in red, just north of the “temporary” bridge it replaces – may open to traffic on Sunday. But Red Bank police Chief Darren McConnell that he was unaware of any plans for an early opening. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
HUBBARD’S BRIDGE NEARING COMPLETION
Two weeks before its scheduled completion, the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown showed further signs of advancement Monday, including a sidewalk along part of the northern rim.
Monmouth County officials say the new bridge, which will replace the steel structure that’s been closed since the start of the year, will open May 17. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
HUBBARD’S BRIDGE ENTERS FINAL MONTH
With one month to go before a self-imposed completion deadline, the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown appeared to be making rapid progress last Friday. The semblance of a roadway appeared between the bridge deck and West Front Street in Middletown, above, and parapet walls that line the northern edge of the span were tied into the existing retaining wall of a residential property, as seen at right.
The existing temporary steel span that adjoins the new bridge has been closed to vehicular trafic since the start of the year, but remains open to pedestrians and bicyclists. Monmouth County officials say the new bridge will open May 17. (Photos by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
HUBBARD’S BRIDGE: IT’S GETTING THERE
Parapets similar to those on the nearby Route 35 Cooper’s Bridge were being installed on the new Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown last week, as seen from the existing temporary steel span, which has been closed since the start of the year but remains open to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Despite the harsh winter, the Monmouth County Engineer’s office still expects the new bridge, which spans the Swimming River at West Front Street, to be completed by May 16, a spokeswoman tells redbankgreen. (Photo above by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: STRETCH OF HARDING TO CLOSE
Harding Road between Prospect Avenue and Ridge Road in Little Silver was expected to be closed starting at 8 a.m. Monday for sewer work, according to the borough website. The roadway is expected to reopen in the mid-afternoon Wednesday. (Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: DETOUR WOES WORSEN
A traffic headache of long duration for drivers who use Branch Avenue in Little Silver is about to get worse. Starting Friday at 8 a.m., Branch Avenue will be closed to all traffic between White Road and Rumson Road for continuing utility work, police said.
Detours, shown above, will be implemented, with northbound traffic on Branch Avenue detoured onto White Road and southbound Branch Avenue traffic detoured onto Rumson Road. But expect extensive delays, and plan an alternate route if possible police advise. (Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: PLAN AROUND TRAFFIC DELAYS
Motorists who travel Branch Avenue between Rumson and White roads in Little Silver should try to avoid doing so between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, police advise. Repair work on a water main will require north- and southbound traffic flows to be alternated, resulting in possible major delays, said Chief Dan Shaffery. Detours will also be in place, but police advise drivers to use other routes if possible. (Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: PARTY OUT BACK AT STATION PLACE
For weeks, it’s looked like a giant version of Thomas Edison’s ‘Black Maria,” a hulking four-story monolith of funereal blackness taking up half a block of Monmouth Street in Red Bank. But things are a lot less dour on the other side of the Station Place apartment complex under construction, as the photo at right shows. Developer Roger Mumford tells redbankgreen the project will be completed by late November, when leasing will begin. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
RED BANK: AN INVITATION FROM ON HIGH
These guys working a cherry picker at the West Side Lofts project under construction in Red Bank offered redbankgreen’s photographer a ride Wednesday afternoon. She declined. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
NAVESINK RIVER: SHOVE OFF, MATEY
A rowboater used an oar to push off from a floating boom as he struggled to turn a rented boat around underneath the new Hubbards Bridge under construction between Red Bank and Middletown Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
RED BANK: STATION PLACE POWERS AHEAD
A temporary utility pole will be erected on the north side of Monmouth Street at West Street in Red Bank to facilitate construction of the 57-unit Station Place apartment complex, under a measure approved by the borough council Wednesday night.
SPRING 2014: A LOFTY GOAL
A mason at work under blue skies Thursday on the West Side Lofts project now rising at the corner of Bridge Avenue and West Front Street in Red Bank. Expect light rain Friday, with temperatures reaching only the mid 40s, but plenty of sunshine and highs in the low- to mid-50s Saturday and Sunday, weather forecasters say. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
SPRING ARRIVES. HALLELUJAH.
WE MADE IT! The winter of 2014, with its seemingly endless snowfalls, ends Thursday with the vernal equinox at 12:57 p.m. Thursday, according to the Old Farmers Almanac. The National Weather Service says temperatures on day one should rise into the low 50s, and skies will be mostly sunny, as they were when a crew of utility workers tackled a job at Monmouth and West streets in Red Bank earlier this week. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
LITTLE SILVER: WORK STARTS ON CONDOS
Six years after winning its original approvals, construction of the 39-unit Carriage Gate condo project got underway with site-clearance work at Eastview and Oceanport avenues in Little Silver this week.
Developer Patrick Kalian, of Shrewsbury-based Kalian Builders, tells redbankgreen that four acres of the 14-acre site will be cleared, with the balance deeded to the town or another entity for preservation. “It will stay heavily wooded, just as it is now,” he said.
The townhouse-style homes, including eight designated as ‘affordable,’ are expected to become available in June, 2014, Kalian said. A restriction limiting occupancy to residents 55 and older was dropped in 2011. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
FOR CONTRACTORS, AN OPEN-DOOR POLICY
On a stroll through downtown Red Bank Thursday, redbankgreen found an unusual amount of renovation work underway.
Some of it, like the conversion of the former Ashes Cigar Bar at 33 Broad Street to a Char Steakhouse, above, has been proceeding for months. But other sites that have long appeared dormant now seem to have stirred back to life.
Click the Read More to take the photo tour yourself. Have we missed any? And do you see a common thread? (Click to enlarge)
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