One Lane Of Midstreams Bridge In Brick To Reopen, County Says

BRICK, NJ — After nearly two months of dealing with a detour, residents who rely on the Midstreams Bridge soon should be able to use one lane of the bridge, Ocean County officials announced Wednesday.

Construction to replace the 55-year-old bridge that spans the Beaver Dam Creek got under way in November, and the initial plan was for one lane of the bridge to remain open at all times during the project.

Shortly after demoltion work began, however, structural issues were discovered that meant the entire bridge needed to be closed, Ocean County Freeholder John P. Kelly said in a news release.

The closure initially was expected to last three weeks, but work at last has progressed enough that officials feel it is safe to open one lane of the bridge while work continues, Kelly said. A northbound travel lane of the original span is expected to open to traffic on Friday, he said.

The existing bridge was originally built in 1962, officials. said. It was 131 feet long, 35 feet wide and consisted of adjacent precast concrete slab beams supported on concrete pile caps founded on timber piles with timber bulkheading. The contractor, Midatlantic Construction of Barnegat, discovered the existing timber piles and timber bulkhead substructure showed signs of advanced deterioration, and the concrete pile caps "exhibited delamination and moderate section loss," officials said. Delamination is defined as something separating inoto layers, caused by repeated stress; in construction, it's applied to composite materials such as concrete, and that kind of separation weakens the material and can cause them to fall apart or collapse.

Officials also said the width of the bridge deck width is substandard "given the increased traffic volumes," the news release said.

The new bridge will be 111 feet long and 49 feet wide, and will be a 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 new structure will include a 40-foot curb-to-curb cart way along with a 6-foot wide sidewalk on the west side. The proposed bridge rail will be a four-bar galvanized steel with cast-in-place concrete pylons. Included in the scope is the extensive installation of steel sheet bulkheading, a revised roadway profile and an upgraded guide rail, the news release said.

"The new bridge will be a safer span for both motorists and pedestrians," Kelly said.

The $4.6 million construction project, awarded in September 2017, is anticipated to be finished by late February or early March 2019, and remains on schedule, officials said.

"We anticipate the lane of traffic to remain open throughout the rest of the project," Kelly said. "This should help ease some of the access issues to the area."

Photo via Brick Township Police Department