South State, Inc. of Bridgeton, NJ will be closing the Roosevelt Boulevard Bridge between Marmora in Upper Township and Ocean City to all traffic Wednesday night October 19th at 10:00pm for the purpose of installing concrete construction barriers. The closure will continue until about 5:00am on Thursday, October 20th. Motorists are advised to use 9th Street to enter or exit Ocean City during this bridge closure time.
The concrete construction barrier will be placed on the east half (Ocean City side) of the Bridge to separate the work area from the one lane that will be used to maintain traffic during the deck rehabilitation project. Starting at 5:00am on Thursday October 20th, traffic on the bridge will be reduced to one lane and traffic will be controlled by portable traffic signals.
South State, Inc. was awarded the $6,482,463.00 construction contract for the bridge project by the Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders on September 13, 2016. The Ocean City half of the bridge is the subject of this year’s construction program. Demolition and reconstruction of reinforced concrete deck in nine (9) of the 15 spans in the eastbound direction are slated to be performed first. Replacing these decks involves sawcutting and jackhammering the existing concrete deck into smaller, more manageable pieces for removal. The new decks will consist of high performance concrete with new epoxy-coated reinforcement steel that will be more resistant to the corrosion caused by the intrusion of salts.
Based upon testing, the remaining 6 spans on the eastern half of the bridge are in good condition and have not required many repairs over the years to their concrete deck. These decks are to have the top 3-inches of the concrete deck removed through a hydro-demolition process. The hydro-demolition of the eastbound lane is expected to occur in earlier December. This process sprays water on to the deck under high pressure at approximately 30,000 pounds per square inch to remove the concrete. The wastewater is collected and disposed of at a sewage treatment plant. The reinforcement steel is cleaned and the decks are overlaid with high performance concrete.
The work in the eastbound direction of the Ocean City half of the bridge is expected to be completed sometime mid-winter. At that time, the eastbound lane will be reopened and construction will begin in the westbound lane. The permanent lane closing on the Ocean City half of the bridge is to be completed by May 4, 2017.
Work on the western half of the bridge will not begin until after Columbus Day Weekend in 2017.
Other work under this bridge project involves strengthening of structural steel members of the main span over the navigational channel; repairs to the bridge railing system; replacement of the deck joint systems; and upgrade to the approach guide rail systems.
Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. out of Lebanon, NJ designed and prepared the contract plans for the project. Maser Consulting PA out of Marmora, NJ is providing the construction engineering and inspection services.
Proposed plans of the replacement bridge can be found on the County website at:
http://www.capemaycountynj.gov/1069/Reports-and-studies.
Contact: Dale Foster, County Engineer
(609) 465-1036