Less than a week after its last overnight closing, the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge will again be closed overnight tonight from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Thursday, according to signage posted this morning. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
Monmouth County Bridge S-32, better known as a the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge, will be closed overnight from 8 p.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Friday for regular maintenance to the center bascule, Monmouth County officials announced Wednesday.
Detours will be posted, as the span will be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
Monmouth County Bridge S-32, better known as a the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge, is slated for replacement, and the county’s engineering department plans to hold two informational sessions on the Shrewsbury River span’s design next week.
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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)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Beginning next Monday, or thereabouts, Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown will be closed to traffic for four months as a new span, at left above, is completed, Monmouth County officials said this week. The existing steel structure, right, installed as a temporary fix a decade ago, will be dismantled for future use elsewhere, officials have said. (Click to enlarge)
See detour information and bridge factoids below, courtesy of Monmouth County (except for the cheeky last one).
Borough officials said they would prefer that the new bridge be north of the existing span instead of south. (Photo by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
Sea Bright approved a preliminary design for a new Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge over the Shrewsbury River Tuesday night, even though it’s not one some of them would have preferred.
The proposed span, a drawbridge like the existing 62-year-old structure, would follow a path about 30 feet south of the current bridge, resulting in the demolition of a building that’s home to a Dunkin’ Donuts and a vacant filling station on Ocean Avenue.
A concept plan discussed by Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore, in Sea Bright below, shows a proposed new alignment for the bridge and approach. The existing bridge, in white, would be torn down. (Photos by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
Sea Bright residents will face yet another extended bridge closure after the one that’s scheduled to begin next week, but there’s no reason to freak out just yet its still at least eight years away.
Representatives of the Monmouth County Engineering Department were in town Wednesday afternoon to host a public information session designed to offer updates and receive feedback on plans to replace the current Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge over the Shrewsbury River.
According to county Engineer Joseph Ettore, the project is still in its first stage, what the department refers to as concept development, and it will still be roughly 8 to 10 years at least before ground is broken on the new span.
One leaf of the two-leaf bascule has remained open to allow for boat traffic to pass beneath the bridge. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
For six months, Salt Creek Grille owner Steve Bidgood has watched with guarded optimism the progress of work to replace the 100-foot-long bascule on the Oceanic Bridge over the Navesink River.
Denied since October the benefit of traffic the 72-year-old bridge was built to carry between Middletown and his side, Rumson, Bidgood’s foremost concern has been that the job wrap up, as advertised, by the start of the busy summer season Memorial Day weekend.
“I’d love to see them do it,” Bidgood told redbankgreen this week, eyeing the elegant bridge framed by the restaurant’s windows. “If they do, I might even buy them dinner.”
It’s looking as though Bidgood will need to reserve a large table.
“There’s no money for business interruption,” says Red Bank Marina owner Steve Remaley, below, who also stands to lose land on both sides of the bridge. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Steve Remaley is about to get it from all sides.
As Monmouth County nears its long-overdue replacement of Hubbard’s Bridge between Red Bank and Middletown starting early next year, the owner of Red Bank Marina is facing:
• the loss of a large parcel of land, opposite his shop on West Front Street, where many of his customers park their vehicles and boat trailers
• the loss of a strip of land on the marina’s main property for the creation of a new pedestrian and bike path to Shrewsbury Avenue
• up to two years of diminished business, including a stretch of at least three months during which bridge traffic will be shut down entirely.
And that’s the best-case scenario.
“I have no idea what I’m in for,” Remaley tells redbankgreen, leaning on a boat being readied for spring and summer use. “This could be the best thing to ever happen to me, or the worst.”
Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore traces the path of the planned walkway, which continues off the proposed new bridge (in yellow) and up a series of ramps along the the west side of the rail line to Shrewsbury Avenue. Below, an elevation rendering of the bridge. (Click to enlarge)
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 Oceanic Bridge looking south toward Rumson, as seen last July. Below, a structural element shows signs of deterioration. (Click to enlarge)
Monmouth County has effectively banned trucks from the Oceanic Bridge starting today as engineers conduct a review of the 70-year-old span’s condition.
A three-ton weight limit was announced by the office of county Engineer Joe Ettore yesterday. The Asbury Park Press reports that the reduction is the second in a month, and follows recent work on the drawbridge mechanism and inspections the structure, which traverses the Navesink River between Rumson and Middletown.
“We put an inspector over the side (of the bridge) to grease the mechanical components and inspect the bridge,” Ettore said. “As a result of the findings, we feel we need to downpost the weight limit. We need a more detailled look and analysis of the conditions we observed.”
County engineers and an expert on movable bridges will make an inspection of the bridge Friday, Ettore said.