|
County To Widen, Improve Lakehurst Road, Maintain Bridges
By Bill McLaughlin
One of the busiest feeder roads in Central Ocean County will be getting a quick makeover in the coming months, the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders announced at their pre-board meeting on August 8.
Lakehurst Road, which runs east-west parallel to the highly-traveled state road Route 37, is a link between downtown Toms River and the outer fringes of the township. Motorists planning to head south on the Garden State Parkway from West Dover avoid the traffic on Route 37 by using the two-lane county road instead.
The heavily-traveled roadway will also be widened at the Hospital Drive intersection and the traffic signal will be upgraded to make access to Community Medical Center easier.
The construction will use a relatively new road-building process that will save money, time and labor.
Freeholder Director John Kelly said the 1.4 mile stretch will use recycled existing materials, as the roadway is milled to the basic concrete road slab. The slab will be pulverized on site using a sonic device and the finely-grained residue will be used as the base for a new asphalt road.
County Engineer Ronald Lotrecchio said jobs like this normally would require pulling up the eight-foot slabs, removing and replacing them with new slabs.
"I don't want to exaggerate but there was a job recently in Point Pleasant," said Freeholder James Lacey, "where the work was supposed to take 30 days and was finished in three instead. And the savings were terrific."
The Lakehurst Road construction will be done during daytime hours because it is basically a residential area.
The board voted August 15 on seeking bids for the job.
In stressing the need to upgrade the access road, Kelly said, "Lakehurst Road is a vital link between Route 37 and downtown Toms River. It's also an important route for the thousands of residents of Berkeley Township's sprawling adult communities."
Work on the project is expected to begin late next year.
Lotrecchio also gave the freeholder board an update on the health of the 110 bridges maintained by the county that are at least 110-feet long and another 130 bridges and culverts between five and 20 feet long.
Kelly told the board the county spends about $8 million a year on bridge inspections, maintenance, replacement and repairs. He said the county will spend $50 million in the next decade on 25 replacement bridges and culverts.
"This is not a reaction to (the Route 35West
bridge collapse in) Minneapolis," Kelly said. "We were doing this before (the collapse)."
Kelly said the county engineering department receives biannual reports on the 110 bridges which are part of the federal National Bridge Inventory and are inspected by federally-approved and hired experts.
"We get very detailed reports from the inspections," Kelly said. "After the reports are done, they're used by our engineering department to decide what needs to be done."
A pecking order based on the importance of repairs is made, Lotrecchio said.
If a bridge or culvert is deemed in need of immediate repair, Kelly said, the county has and will front the money for the job and worry about payment from the state later.
"If (the engineers) came to the board and said there's a deficiency," Kelly said, "we'd immediately have it fixed or replaced."
In the average year, the county engineer said, four bridges or culverts are replaced.
"There is a commitment on the part of the county to make sure our bridges and the infrastructure is up to date and maintained," Kelly said. "These replacement and maintenance programs are ongoing and help us insure the safety of the structures motorists use in Ocean County."
One project long in the talking stage has been a replacement bridge for the Mathis Bridge, the east-bound span over Barnegat Bay between Toms River and the barrier peninsula. Lotrecchio said the state is looking to replace the bridge but didn't provide a timetable.
Seven county bridges are being redesigned and scheduled for replacement: Vince's Bridge on Oak Ridge Parkway in Toms River; Black Snake Creek Bridge on Bayview Avenue in Berkeley; Francis Mills Bridge on Route 571 (near Reed Road) in Jackson; Brook Ridge Road Bridge on Brook Road, Lakewood, near the county line; Rova Farms Bridge on Route 571 in Jackson; Grawtown Road Bridge in Jackson; and Morris Boulevard Bridge in Stafford.
"Most bridges are constructed with an expected life span of at least 50 years," said Lacey, who is liaison to the county road department. "Without proper maintenance and ongoing inspections, the span could age prematurely and become a safety hazard."
| 
