Motorists who travel Spring Street in Red Bank will need to adjust for some temporary changes resulting from road work this week and next.
And there will be a permanent change in place once the work is done: a new four-way stop intersection.
An employee of Catch 19 setting up tables Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
With borough workers and contractors putting finishing touches on an eight-month-long streetscape project, a handful of restaurants hastily set up for a return of Red Bank’s Broadwalk plaza Friday.
Outside the traffic-free zone, however, none of the parking-space streateries used over the past two summers have returned, following a sixfold increase in fees by the borough council.
Gleaming new retractable security bollards are expected make their debut on Broad Street in downtown Red Bank with the return of Broadwalk Friday.
But will businesses be ready for the late-starting third season of the dining and shopping plaza?
With temperatures climbing to the mid-90s, a road crew laid down tons of hot asphalt to repave Broad Street in Red Bank Tuesday.
The workers hope to complete the job, part of an eight-month streetscape makeover from Harding Road to Front Street, in coming days. In the process, they’ll be contending with heat values as high as 105, according to the National Weather Service.
The muggy heat and humidity are expected to linger, with a heat advisory in effect for most of Wednesday and daytime peaks in the 90s through the weekend. Check out the extended forecast below. (redbankgreen photos. Click to enlarge.)
A crew from Montana Construction adjusting one of the new retractable bollards on Broad Street Friday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Accustomed to detours and dust from an eight-month-long rebuilding of Broad Street, merchants and motorists in Red Bank will face what officials hope will be one last series of shutdowns next week.
Weather permitting, several days of paving and striping should all but finish the streetscape project.
Businesses readied for the second year of Broadwalk in May, 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Delayed by months, the third season of Red Bank’s Broadwalk shopping-and-dining plaza may finally get going July 22.
This year’s edition, however, is slated to run only through Labor Day. And new fees for in-street dining will cost restaurateurs twice what they paid over the past two summers, said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
Newly installed retractable bollards will allow for upper Broad Street to be converted quickly to a vehicle-free Broadwalk. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s council is scheduled to hold two meetings Wednesday night, its only sessions in July.
Though not on the agenda for either the workshop or regular meeting, action to enable a third season of Broadwalk is anticipated by the downtown business community.
A view of Broadwalk at lunchtime last October. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank merchants and residents pressed officials with concerns regarding a third season of Broadwalk at a community forum Wednesday night.
With less than a month to go before a disruptive streetscape makeover project wraps up, they called for efforts to address litter, traffic, speeding on residential streets and more.
Retractable bollards were installed on Mechanic Street near Broad Street Wednesday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
See UPDATE below
By JOHN T. WARD
A messy, overdue and over-budget makeover of upper Broad Street in Red Bank is expected to conclude in late July, acting borough Administrator Darren McConnell said Wednesday.
The project, which began last November, marked a milestone with the installation this week of retractable hydraulic bollards that will enable quick closure of the street to vehicular traffic.
Still to be determined is when the Broadwalk dining promenade will return for a third, if abbreviated, season.
The mayor and council meet at borough hall for their first in-person session in 26 months Wednesday night. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A budget for 2022 is on the agenda when the Red Bank mayor and council hold their first in-person meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday night.
The session is also the first to simultaneously employ technology allowing participation from home.
A backhoe operator was lucky to be alive after his machine struck a live power line in Red Bank Tuesday morning.
The smell of natural gas from a line rupture on White Street in Red Bank could be detected as far away as the intersection of Harding Road and Broad Street Monday morning.
For the second time in 13 years, a stretch of White Street in Red Bank is temporarily treeless.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
A runner passes one of two new murals on opposite sides of White Street in Red Bank last week.
Created by muralist Bob Mataranglo, at right, they depict Navesink River scenes with bas relief elements, including the Monmouth Boat Club, the Riverside Gardens Park archway and a sailboat.
Except for a few punchlist items, a four-month, $1.53 million streetscape project in downtown Red Bank is now completed, according to business promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
No injuries were reported, and power was not immediately affected, after a utility pole snapped and fell against a building on English Plaza in Red Bank Thursday afternoon.
A summer-long streetscape project in downtown Red Bank neared completion this week. But it will take one last, extended disruption to get there, says Red Bank RiverCenter.
What’s Going On Here? Read on.
Shrimp, arugula and capellini pasta at the newly opened GiGi’s New York Style Pizza and Restaurant. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)
By SUSAN ERICSON
Admiring the new street lights installed as part of a streetscape makeover on Ocean Avenue in Sea Bright earlier this week, PieHole spied the equally new GiGi’s New York Style Pizza and Restaurant.
Located next door to Melonhead in a space that most recently housed the Black Swine restaurant, which moved to a larger spot a block away, Gigi’s turns out to be owned by familiar faces: chef Kenny Gambella and his wife, Kelly, who also own Sonny’s Sandwich Shop just down the street.
Work to replace the two crumbling, 1930s-era peanut-stone pillars flanking the West Front Street entrance to the English Plaza parking lot in Red Bank will result in daytime closures of that driveway beginning Tuesday, the borough announced.
The fence and sign bordering the onetime Steinbach’s department store parking lot on Broad Street, above, will be transformed into a landscaped seating area, shown in an aerial concept drawing below. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two Red Bank parking lots are in for some dolling-up.
RiverCenter, the downtown promotion agency, plans to spruce up the former Steinbach’s parking lot on Broad Street with landscaping and benches, and to replace two stone pillars at the north entrance to the English Plaza lot, officials said in a presentation to the borough council Wednesday night.
And RiverCenter is working on a streetscape plan for a portion of White Street, including the southern entrance to English Plaza, said executive director Jim Scavone.
Authorities hope the crossing will centralize pedestrian movements to and from the theater on show nights. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank’s long-awaited plan to extend streetscape touches down a neglected stretch of Monmouth Street includes a mid-block crossing at the County Basie Theatre, officials say.
Depending on the cost, the project might also include a reworking of the landscaping across the street from the theater, on borough hall property, into an outdoor seating area for theater patrons and others, they said.
A stretch of River Road in Fair Haven, seen looking east here, will get upgrades thanks to federal stimulus money. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
How do you get more money from the federal government than you ever dreamed of, or even asked for? Tell ’em you don’t want it, apparently.
It worked for Fair Haven, which, led by anti-stimulus Republican Mayor and Congressional candidate Mike Halfacre, recently received $886,000 in stimulus funds nearly double the borough’s original request of $480,000 for its “River Road West Streetscape” plan.
The borough was notified by the Federal Highway Administration in February it was receiving the larger-than-asked for sum, Halfacre says on his blog.
The 12th-district House candidate also defends accepting the money, despite his belief that the $787 billion stimulus package passed by President Obama last year was “pork-laden” and would be “ineffective.”