Bridge Closure Set for Thursday Night

Now that the , it may be bearing a bit more traffic to and from Middletown tonight through tomorrow.

Red Bank's West Front Street Bridge (or Hubbards Bridge) will be closed Thursday night into Friday morning for routine maintenance, Monmouth County officials announced on Tuesday evening.

To allow maintenance crews to tighten deck plates on the bridge, the county will temporarily close the bridge that connects the borough to Middletown over swimming river at 9 p.m. Thursday night. The bridge will reopen at 5 a.m. Friday. The closure is weather permitting, county officials said in a release.

Vehicles approaching Red Bank from the Middletown side will be detoured down Hubbard Avenue, right onto Navesink River Road, and then onto Route 35 south, which will take them into Red Bank. Vehicles attempting to enter Middletown will take the same route, just in reverse.

The county plans to replace Front Street bridge completely in 2013. The more than $12 million project is slated to begin in 2013 and will be built alongside the current one.

Though construction is expected to take the better part of a year, the county said it estimates only a four-month closing of the current bridge.