TRAFFIC ALERT: West Front Street Bridge Between Middletown, Red Bank Closing Until May

Middletown and Red Bank residents and or local commuters who cross the West Front Street Bridge need a new driving plan for the new year: on or about Monday, January 5, the bridge (S-17) will close to motor vehicle traffic until May 16.

According to a reminder published by the Middletown Township Committee, motorists should expect delays in the area during construction, and drivers should plan an alternate travel route until the work is completed and the new West Front Street Bridge is opened to traffic in mid-May.

Detours will be posted, with westbound traffic from West Front Street in Red Bank directed north on Rector Place to State Highway 35 and across Coopers Bridge, and then on to Navesink River Road to Hubbard Avenue. Eastbound traffic from West Front Street in Middletown will be directed north on Hubbard Avenue to Navesink River Road to State Highway 35, and across Coopers Bridge to Rector Place.

Pedestrian will still be able to access crossing the bridge. Bicyclists must dismount and walk their bicycle across the bridge throughout the closure.

“We are moving into the home stretch with the West Front Street Bridge replacement project and it is on schedule to open before Memorial Day weekend,” said Freeholder Thomas A. Arnone, liaison to the Department of Public Works and Engineering. “To connect the new bridge to the Middletown and Red Bank shorelines, we must close the current bridge to vehicles and begin the last big phase of construction.”

The new bridge will be 480-feet long and 44-feet wide. There will be two 12-foot travel lanes for motor vehicles, and four-foot shoulders and six-foot sidewalks in both directions. Improvements with the new bridge design include minor roadway widening on the bridge approaches. The new bridge will also provide approximately nine feet of vertical clearance above mean high water elevation, according to the Township, and there will be approximately 72 feet of horizontal clearance within the navigable channel of the Swimming River.

The new West Front Street Bridge project involves architectural enhancements that include ornamental lights and highway lighting, as well as a decorative recessed brick panel parapet with a decorative ball and cap railing. The look will complement the nearby Route 35 Bridge, also known locally as Coopers Bridge.

The new project will give the new West Front Street Bridge improved storm water drainage, and new guide rail treatments. The bridge’s concrete sidewalks will provide an ADA accessible route from Hubbard Avenue in Middletown to Rector Place/Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank.

The West Front Street Bridge, or Hubbard’s Bridge - as it is known locally, was originally constructed in 1921 as a six-span, 339 foot, four inch stringer structure, simply supported through girder with floor beam. The deck was a steel open-grid deck. Due to the bridge’s age, severe corrosion required that the bridge be replaced.

The bridge contractor, Agate Construction of Ocean View, New Jersey, began work on the replacement project in August 2013. Construction is on track to open the new bridge to traffic by May 16, 2015.

Stay on top of Patch’s local coverage of Middletown by subscribing to the daily Middletown-NJ Patch newsletter by clicking here.

Related stories on Patch:

• TRAFFIC ALERT: Delays Expected on Hubbard Avenue in Middletown

• UPDATE: Middletown Road Work and Possible Traffic Delays

• Middletown Traffic Updates For The Week