CAPE MAY – Lafayette Street Bridge, the small but main vital link for this city to Lower Township, built in 1927 that spans Cape Island Creek, is set for $1.23 million in repairs.
Freeholders awarded a contract Feb. 23 to Midlantic Construction LLC of Barnegat for the project. The firm’s was the lowest of four bids received Feb. 10, according to the resolution that awarded the work.
County Engineer Dale Foster said there will be lane closings as the work progresses. That’s because the contractor needs access to the machinery room under the fixed-span, which was built as a moveable span.
However, after the Seashore Road Bridge over Cape May Canal in 1972, Foster said that moveable span was no longer needed, thus it became a fixed bridge.
At the Jan. 12 meeting, Foster told the board the bridge had been downgraded in an inspection to “structurally deficient” because its substructure was in poor condition “due to deterioration of the columns that are contained in the machinery room.”
The project will include installation of steel columns and placement of beams. It will also replace the cracked and crumbling sidewalks leading to and over the bridge.
First part of the work will be the northbound side, which will be done prior to Memorial Day Weekend. Work will halt for the summer and resume sometime after Columbus Day Weekend on the southbound lane, Foster said.
Because of the cramped, confined space in the machinery room, a video camera was placed to afford contractors, who were going to bid on the job, would be able to see what the project would entail.
Half a million dollars of the sum came from a 2013 Local Bridges Future Needs program, he added. Lafayette Street is also known as County Road 633.
Cape May County – Inept, clueless, inadequate don't even scratch the surface of "NOLA's" police chief, mayor and governor, I cringe at the thought of two more major events happening soon, did you…
