HOWELL – With a snip of the scissors cutting a bright red ribbon stretched across Route 524, the new bridge on Adelphia-Farmingdale Road was officially opened for travel today.

 

County and local officials were on hand to dedicate the newly completed project, which involved realigning the roadway, installing a traffic signal and the bridge replacement itself.

 

“The project was very significant for a number of reasons,” Freeholder William C. Barham said. “First, all of the design work was handled in-house by our own engineers at a reduced cost to taxpayers. Second, we built a temporary span next to the bridge so detours were unnecessary. This was important for a road that gets such high usage by the residents of Howell.”

 

The project was comprised of three separate components. In addition to replacing the bridge on Route 524, known locally as Adelphia-Farmingdale Road, its intersection with Route 524A, known as Squankum-Yellow Brook Road, was realigned. Lastly, a traffic light was installed.

 

“The project greatly improves the safety of the traveling public by realigning and signalizing a severely skewed and heavily traveled intersection, installing a fully actuated traffic light and replacing a structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridge,” County Engineer Joseph Ettore said.

 

“Having traveled this way so many times myself I know firsthand how important it was to realign the intersection and widen the road and bridge,” Freeholder Barbara J. McMorrow said at the ribbon cutting. “This is a wonderful improvement for the residents of Howell.”

           

Roadway improvements consisted of widening of about 1,400 feet of Adelphia-Farmingdale Road to a consistent 40-foot pavement width and realignment and widening about 1,200 feet of Squankum-Yellow Brook Road. The new T-intersection provides a through lane in each direction on Adelphia-Farmingdale Road, a dedicated left turn lane on Squankum-Yellow Brook Road westbound and northbound, and a dedicated right-turn lane on Adelphia-Farmingdale Road eastbound.

 

The bridge project entailed construction of a temporary bypass road to maintain vehicular traffic on Adelphia-Farmingdale Road, and the removal of an existing single-span bridge in its entirety.  A new single-span bridge was constructed with reinforced concrete abutments and wing walls supported on spread footings with scour protection, pre-stressed concrete voided slab beam superstructure and reinforced concrete parapets and railing.

 

The entire project, including the roadway, bridge, traffic and signal design, survey, drafting, permit procurement, utility coordination, right-of-way acquisition and inspection was performed in-house by the Monmouth County Department of Public Works and Engineering.

 

This project was constructed by Green Construction of South River at an estimated final contract cost of $1,950,000. The project was completed within budget and, by not detouring Adelphia-Farmingdale Road, with minimal inconvenience to the traveling public.

 

 

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