OCEAN COUNTY – Two old bridges, one in Stafford and one in Manchester, will be replaced soon, officials said.
Ordinances authorizing the work, and appropriating the money, were passed at the most recent meeting of the Ocean County Freeholders.
In Stafford, the bridge will be one on Morris Boulevard that crosses a lagoon on the way to the Barnegat Bay. For the project, the county will appropriate $2 million, of which $1.9 million will be bonded.
County engineer John Ernst said the bridges were scheduled to be replaced because of their age. In this particular case, county officials met with the residents in the area and learned that if the bridge was raised one foot, it would be in line with another bridge in the area, which is on Marsha Boulevard.
Dawn Papatheodorou, president of the Beach Haven West Civic Association, said that some of the residents in that neighborhood were having trouble getting their boats out to the Barnegat Bay. They are really excited about the county providing this help.
The other bridge is on Ridgeway Boulevard, which links Ridgeway Road (otherwise known as Route 571) to a Y-shaped intersection with South Hope Chapel Road, just north of Route 70.
The county will be building a new garage for its transportation department on that road. Ernst said that since it’s a timber bridge, the county wanted to make sure it was going to be sturdy enough to handle the additional traffic from heavy vehicles.
The county appropriated $2.5 million for the project, issuing $2,3750,000 to fund it.
