County Breaks Ground In Manchester On New Ocean Ride Facility

MANCHESTER, NJ — Ocean County officials broke ground Friday on a new facility to house the Ocean County Department of Transportation.

The facility, to be built on Ridgeway Boulevard, will include offices, space for drivers and for the equipment for the department, which operates Ocean Ride.

The facility will be closer to the senior communities Ocean Ride serves in Whiting, Manchester, Toms River, Jackson and Lakewood, officials said. The department currently operates out of a site on Route 9 in Toms River; moving it will make it easier for the Ocean Ride buses to come and go, Freeholder Gary Quinn said.

With the completion of a new Ocean County Road Department garage on the site, work to construct the new Ocean Ride facility recently at Ocean County's Western Complex got underway.

"Ocean County's Western Complex serves as the new home to some of Ocean County government's most essential services," Freeholder Director Virginia E. Haines said.

The new road department garage houses road department equipment, two maintenance crews and two specialty crews and includes a salt dome for winter road maintenance.

The new facility for the Transportation Department includes a 9,000-square-foot office building and a 100-foot-by-180-foot garage area with 10 bays that will be operated by the Ocean County Department of Vehicle Services, which maintains the county's buses and vehicles.

The transportation garage will be outfitted with numerous lifts, a welding bay, oil dispensing system, compressed air throughout for tools, vehicle exhaust system, and spare parts storage. The county also has plans of installing drive-thru snow removal equipment to brush the snow off the tops of buses with ease.

"The construction of this state of the art facility is just another example of the unwavering commitment from the Board of Freeholders to support transportation's effort to provide a high level of service to the senior and disabled residents of Ocean County," said David Fitzgerald, Director of the Ocean County Transportation Department.

Quinn noted that Ocean Ride started 42 years ago. It now provides over 325,000 trips helping residents get around Ocean County. The service provides reserve-a-ride and fixed bus routes. In 2018, it traveled more than 1.7 million miles.

"These new facilities will help in our efforts to provide quality services far into the future," he said. "This service provides a lifeline for many of our residents that would be homebound if they couldn't access public transportation to get to doctor's appointments or shopping trips.

"This is a service that makes a significant difference in the lives of many of our residents," he said. "And while the bricks and mortar will be new, the professionalism and dedication of the staffs in these departments has been a long time tradition that serves as the centerpiece that makes these services so beneficial."

Construction is expected to be completed in the spring of 2020. The facility will be powered by solar energy panels which will be located on the roof and there also will be a backup natural gas operated generator.

Ben Harvey Construction was the contractor for the Road Department garage. Arthur J. Ogren, Inc. is the contractor for the Transportation facility.

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