CREST HAVEN – Small infrastructure projects are taking place all around Cape May County, and they add up to big money and needed improvements.
On Tuesday, Sept. 23, County Engineer Robert Church outlined for the county commissioners some of the active jobs the county was involved in, including the resurfacing of Mill Road up in Upper Township, which took place on Friday, Sept. 19. Church said the county’s contractor was engaged in doing the driveways and replacing the guide rail, saying that would finish the job.
Regarding the Marshall Road Bridge project in Upper Township, the contractor repointed the stone walls, removed the existing bridge, and on Tuesday installed the helical piles, sometimes called screw piles, to support the bridge.
“So those projects were going along very well,” Church said.
Also on Sept. 23, the commissioners introduced a $40 million bond for numerous road and drainage projects. Church briefly went over those projects for the board, including the East Creek Mill Road, Phase 2.
“So, that’s also known as Route 347,” Church said.
The project starts where Phase I ended, at milepost 1.35, and extends all the way up to the Cumberland County line. The project includes milling, paving, and guiderail replacement after some were damaged.
Another project area is Seashore Road Phase II, which extends from Breakwater to Tabernacle Road and is another resurfacing project. It also includes traffic signal upgrades at Tabernacle Road.
The New Jersey Avenue Road diet and traffic synchronization continues in Wildwood Crest, and includes the complete reconstruction of the roadway: taking the four lane section and replacing it with a three-lane section with a bike lane. Traffic signals along the corridor are being synchronized and, working in conjunction with the Borough of Wildwood Crest, there’s a small “pocket park” included in the project.
Pocket parks are small slices of public space that nestle into otherwise hard-to-develop pieces of land.
“We’ll have a shared services agreement for that, but that work will be part of our contract,” Church said.
Goshen Road Phase II will be a continuation of maintenance on Goshen Road, which took it from Dias Creek Road to Bidwell Branch. Phase II will go from Bidwell Branch to Route 47 to complete that corridor.
The Roosevelt Boulevard Gateway Project is being completed in conjunction with the City of Ocean City. It includes a reconstruction of Roosevelt Boulevard from the base of the bridge up to Bay Avenue, where the roadway is being elevated. From Bay Avenue to West Avenue the project is milling and paving only.
The Delaware Avenue Seawall in Cape May is a project being done in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is the lead agency on the project. It involves the entire slope along Delaware Avenue where the Coast Guard base is. The cost of the project is 65% federal and 35% county.
“They’re responsible for the design, the construction, and the construction inspection,” Church said.
Courthouse South-Dennis Road will be resurfaced from Route 47 to Goshen-Swainton Road.
According to Church, this is being resurfaced due to problems with what he called an experimental asphalt mix. He said the county did numerous patches last year and the mix the NJDOT was using about 20 years became very brittle, and the state has since discontinued using it, The county will replace that top surface course, he said.
There are also drainage improvements including Shunpike Road in Middle Township at Pacific Avenue. Which he said was a prerequisite to a federally paving project Bayshore Road south of the Cape May canal. In addition, the county will take care of a drainage issue at Butter Road in Upper Township, improving drainage from Stagecoach to Route 9.
“It’s a constant flooding area there and the East Mill Creek culvert replacement so as a prerequisite to the paving of that road which will occur in the spring. We’re replacing the northerly culvert,” Church said, noting that the culvert was one of five corrugated metal pipes failed because they were severely deteriorated. “So we actually had to plug that pipe and and stop that flow through that culvert.”
Church said the county would go out to bid in November for resurfacing work.
He also said the county brought emergency pile encasements to the bridge along Avalon Boulevard. In January, the county declared an emergency to basically encapsulate several of the piles along both the Leonard’s Thorofare Bridge and Avalon Canal Bridge.
The final project mentioned was the Hand Avenue culvert replacement in Middle Township. The culvert is located on Hand Avenue, approaching Route 47.
“That’s basically the projects. Most of those are already designed, some are actually out to bid now,” Church said. “There’s about $14 million worth of federal and state grant money that’s being applied to this bond.”
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600 x-128.
