Matawan Creek Bridge Project Accounts for High Tides, Foot Traffic

The bridge over Matawan Creek between Aberdeen Township and Keyport Borough may undergo a total reconstruction in 2013 to make it taller, wider and stronger.

The Monmouth County Engineering Department is overseeing a federally funded project to demolish the aging bridge and build a new one in its place. Greenman-Pederson Inc. (GPI), the consulting firm responsible for the engineering and planning of the bridge, held a public information meeting at Keyport Borough Hall Wednesday night explaining the reconstruction project.

The original bridge was built in 1916 and underwent a major rehabilitation in 1960. Currently, the bridge is 271'' long and 26'2'' wide bridge has a weight limit of five tons. The bridge is deteriorating and regular maintenance would be more costly than the approximately $8 million reconstruction project, according to GPI Deputy Project Manager Judy Bowen.

The new bridge will be 32 feet wide from curb to curb, including two 12-foot-wide lanes, 4-foot wide shoulders, a 6-foot-wide sidewalk on the south  side and a 10-foot-wide on the north side. The profile of the bridge will be increased to 12 feet above the average high water level from 8 feet, which will provide a higher clearance for boats, make tidal flooding less likely and allow for a speed limit of 35 miles per hour, Bowen explained.

The bridge is in a 100-year flood zone, and would have to be at least 14 feet high to account for that. Bowen said that making the bridge that high is unrealistic because it would have to extend far into Aberdeen to compensate. Because of this, the Coastal Evacuation Route will remain the same.

To account for the increase in height, the length of the bridge will be increased from 271 feet to 340 feet. According to Bowen, barrier walls extending from the bridge to the land and a drainage system will prevent the bridge from flooding the four properties surrounding it - Wagner's Arena, , Up The Creek Tavern and Brown's Point Marina.

Several local residents and boaters attended the information session and expressed their excitement about the project. Tom Gallo, a Keyport resident, member of Keyport's Emergency Management Group and the president of the Keyport Historical Society was glad to hear that fire trucks would be able to safely travel over the bridge and that tidal flooding would be significantly reduced.

"Overall I think a lot of good homework has gone into this. I'm sure there's going to be some discomfort when its actually closed but it looks really good," Gallo said.

Boat owners were concerned about marina access and passing beneath the bridge during construction, but Bowen assurred them that the four businesses surrounding the bridge would be open and accessible and that the waterway would remain passable.

According to an informational handout at the meeting, the new bridge will consist of reinforced concrete abutments and piers supported by pile foundations, painted steel girders, reinforced concrete deck slabs and sidewalks, traffic and pedestrian barriers, asphalt surfaced roadways, retaining walls, sidewalks and upgraded safety features.

The sidewalk will continue from the bridge into Keyport and connect with the already existing sidewalk at the intersection of Washington Street and West Front Street.

If all goes as planned, the project will go to bid in Spring 2013 and construction will begin in Fall 2013. The bridge would be closed during construction and cars would be detoured onto Route 35 to Broadway in order to access Keyport.

The length of the actual construction depends on whether or not the utilities that currently run under the sidewalk of the bridge can all be run under the bed of Matawan Creek, Bowen said.

Verizon telephone lines, a Aberdeen 12'' sewer force main, a Aberdeen/Keyport 8'' water main and a New Jersey Natural Gas line run under the sidewalk of the current bridge. GPI is awaiting the final decision on the other utilities, but Bowen said they are fairly certain that the gas line will be relocated under the creek.

If all the utilities can be removed permanently from the bridge, then construction will be split into two phases, demolishing the old one and building the new one. This process is expected to take about 18 months.

However, if some of the utilities must remain under the sidewalk portion of the bridge, a three stage process will have to be used. First, a small portion of the north side of the new bridge will be built. Then, utilities will be relocated to the new section of bridge. Finally, the roadway would be closed, demolished and reconstructed. This process is expected to take two years.

Editor's Note: This article was updated to include additional information about the height and the length of the new bridge.