Commonwealth Avenue to Be Improved

STRATHMERE – The lonesome stretch of two-lane county-owned highway that links Sea Isle City to Strathmere, also known as Commonwealth Avenue, has long been battered by the sea. After virtually every severe storm, it’s either underwater or covered by sand and debris. Sand dunes help to protect it.
During Hurricane Sandy, its concrete slabs, not normally buoyant, were shifted, according to County Engineer Dale Foster.
He displayed a long aerial photograph detailing the project to freeholders July 14 during the caucus meeting.
A recent public hearing in Strathmere about the proposed $3.7-million upgrade drew what might be considered a crowd: nine residents. While the number is admittedly slim, Foster cited a public hearing held by N.J. Turnpike Authority on the exit zero upgrade to Garden State Parkway in Lower Township drew a single person, excluding media representatives.
Commonwealth Avenue will be the 2015 Federal Aid Local Lead Project, Foster told freeholders July 14.
Included in the project will be milling of asphalt 20 feet wide from the Sea Isle City border to Corson’s Inlet Bridge, as well as eight-feet-wide shoulders and crosswalks at every side street intersection along the 5,000-foot-long project. There are also 5,000 lineal feet of storm drain included in the work.
Foster said there was some deterioration with the road’s concrete sub-base, but where there are joints, asphalt is affected.
Guide rails on Corson’s Inlet Bridge will be upgraded as part of the work, Foster said.
It is anticipated that the project will take all of 2016 to complete with federal aid.
For its timeline, Foster said authorization would be made in September, paperwork done by late October, out to bid in December or January with construction to start in March.
Work must be completed by mid-June, when Strathmere’s summer influx begins.
Residents in the Ocean Beach Trailer Resort, which fronts on Commonwealth Avenue, asked Foster to consider installing a curb across the front of the property, since they put new gravel in recently. Without a curb to stop its movement, gravel “has a tendency to fall out on the shoulder. It’s something we need to consider,” Foster said.