Barrier Island Road Projects A Year Away, Brick Officials Say

Residents of Brick Township’s barrier island will have to wait at least another year for paving and other projects to be completed, township officials said Tuesday night.

Nearly 22 months after Superstorm Sandy devastated much of Ocean County’s barrier island communities, work continues in the process of restoring utility service, repairing and upgrading drainage and building protection from future storms.

“When will we be back to normal?” Jim Hanlon of 7th Avenue asked during the public comment portion of the Brick Township Council meeting, held in the Normandy Beach Improvement Association clubhouse.

Township administrator Joanne Bergin said the work on township roads in the Normandy Beach section and the remainder of the barrier island sections within township borders won’t begin until after the state Department of Transportation completes its work on Route 35.

“It’s essential for Route 35 to be completed before other work is done,” she said. That way the town can avoid paving roads only to have them ripped up again.

Work on Route 35, which was suspended for the summer to accommodate tourist traffic, isn’t expected to resume until after Labor Day, she said.

The DOT’s plans for the project are extensive. In addition to new gas lines being installed by New Jersey Natural Gas, a new stormwater drainage system is being installed that includes subsurface pumping stations equipped with electric generators. New drainage pipes and New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System-compliant inlet grates will be installed in the shoulder areas throughout the project to help prevent debris from entering the system.

And the new stone and asphalt road will be three feet thick, according to the DOT.

“It’s not going to happen all at once,” Bergin said. The target date, if things stay on schedule, is for all of the Route 35 work -- utility work, drainage, sidewalks/curbing, and the road itself -- to be completed by July 1, 2015. At that point Brick will proceed with its own work, Bergin said.