Two Jersey Shore bridges closing lanes starting Monday

As we head closer to summer road crews are ramping up efforts to ensure all road projects are completed before more drivers hit the road with the warmer weather.

If your commute takes you over the Route 71 bridge over the Shark River between Belmar and Avon By The Sea, you'll need to adjust your way to work on Monday and the weeks to follow.

NJDOT have announced that maintenance repairs requiring temporary lane closures will resume at 7:00 am on Monday.

This work was originally scheduled to begin this week and was postponed because of weather.

Bridge work will continue for the next several weeks as the NJDOT’s contractor Agate Construction is scheduled to close the left lane in each direction on the Route 71/Main Street moveable bridge between Belmar and Avon by the Sea to establish a center work zone for bridge maintenance repairs.

Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction, with northbound traffic using the shoulder as a travel lane.

At least one lane in each direction will be maintained during construction.

The drawbridge will remain operational for boat traffic and the sidewalks will remain open to pedestrians.

The work is expected to be completed before Memorial Day.

The maintenance work on the Route 71 Bridge over Shark River began last fall with work on the outside lanes and curbs.

The current work includes concrete deck and joint repairs, moveable bridge parts maintenance, crack sealing and waterproofing of the substructure, cleaning of the drainage scuppers and miscellaneous asphalt repairs.

Construction signs will provide advance notification to motorists of traffic pattern changes associated with the work.

The precise timing of the work is subject to change due to weather or other factors.

In Ocean County, the new Midstreams Bridge which crosses over Beaver Dam Creek in Brick will be closed to traffic on Monday for its final paving and striping work.

“The span will be closed the one day so the contractor can complete the paving and final striping of the bridge,” Ocean County Engineer John Ernst said. “We chose April 22 because area schools are closed and the traffic flow will be less.”

Detours will be posted in the area.

Ernst said the contractor, Midlantic Construction, Barnegat Township, will also complete any additional site work on April 22.

The new Midstreams Bridge was reopened to traffic on February 19.

It's a 111 feet long single span structure consisting of adjacent precast/prestressed concrete box beams, supported on full height reinforced concrete abutments, founded on cast-in-place steel pipe piles and concrete footings.

The width of the new structure is 49 feet and includes a 40 feet curb-to-curb cart way along with a 6-foot wide sidewalk on the west side.

The proposed bridge rail is a four-bar galvanized steel with cast-in-place concrete pylons.

“This new structure will serve our motorists and pedestrians for years to come,” Ocean County Freeholder Director Virginia Haines, who serves as co-chair of the Ocean County Engineering Department with Freeholder Deputy Director John P. Kelly, said.

The Midstreams Bridge was originally built in 1962.

The existing timber piles and timber bulkhead substructure showed signs of advanced deterioration while the existing concrete pile caps exhibited delamination and moderate section loss and the bridge deck width was substandard given the increased traffic volumes.

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