If you’re planning on crossing the West Front Street Bridge anytime soon, plan an alternate route.
Utility relocation work and intersection reconstruction on both sides of the West Front Street Bridge (otherwise known as Hubbard’s Bridge) will begin at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
To facilitate the utility work and additional intersection reconstruction, the bridge will be closed to all motor vehicle traffic for two weeks. Weather permitting, the work should be completed by Aug. 26, allowing for the reopening of the bridge in advance of Labor Day weekend.
“We met the primary goal of having the new bridge and open in time for the Memorial Day weekend,” Freeholder Thomas A. Arnone said in a press release. “The utility companies must now relocate their lines and equipment before the bridge contractor can work and complete the remaining work for the project.
“After meeting with the elected officials and administration of both Red Bank and Middletown, it was decided that this schedule provides the necessary timeframe for the utility companies to perform their relocation work and the contractor to complete the intersection reconstruction work before the opening of the nearby public schools.”
The other construction option was to have the bridge be kept open to traffic and have the utility relocation and intersection reconstruction work done in multiple stages. The time estimated for that staged work was a minimum of 12 weeks.
Across the new West Front Street Bridge, the utility companies will work to relocate existing power from the overhead lines which are still active on the existing bridge over to the newly constructed underground facilities.
In Red Bank, on the eastern side of the bridge, the intersection of Shrewsbury Avenue, Rector Place and West Front Street will be closed so the contractor can complete the reconstruction of the intersection.
Accordingly, eastbound traffic will be detoured from West Front Street to Bridge Avenue to Route 35 (crossing Cooper Bridge) to Navesink River Road. Traffic will then continue to Hubbard Avenue to Carpenter Street and then to Applegate Street. Detour signs will be posted along the route.
In Middletown, the intersection of Hubbard Avenue at West Front Street will be closed for the reconstruction of the intersection. Westbound traffic will be detoured to Applegate Street and then Foster Street to Hubbard Avenue and Navesink River Road to Route 35 south (crossing Cooper Bridge) to Bridge Avenue to Monmouth Street to Shrewsbury Avenue.
As planned, the new West Front Street Bridge first opened to traffic on May 18. The new bridge is a 488-foot long steel girder bridge built to the north of the previous West Front Street Bridge.
The final completion of this project was originally scheduled for April 2016.
In addition to the relocation of various utilities, the old bridge will be completely removed, concrete sidewalks will be completed that will provide an ADA accessible route from Hubbard Avenue in Middletown to Rector Place/Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank.
The new West Front Street Bridge is 44-feet wide with two 12-foot travel lanes and four-foot shoulders and six-foot sidewalks in both directions. The new bridge provides approximately nine feet of vertical clearance above mean high water elevation; there will be approximately 72 feet of horizontal clearance within the navigable channel of the Swimming River.
The previous West Front Street Bridge was originally constructed in 1921 as a six span, simply supported, through girder, floor beam, stringer structure 339 feet, 4 inches long. The deck was a steel open grid deck. Each span was 55 feet long between bearings. The original substructure consisted of pile supported concrete abutments and piers and wing walls.
Due to the original bridge’s age, severe corrosion required that the bridge’s superstructure be replaced. This was completed in 2004.
A temporary Acrow® panel truss superstructure was erected and substructures were adapted to carry the trusses. This temporary installation was made to keep the bridge crossing open to traffic while a permanent replacement structure could be designed.
— Monmouth County press release … edited