COURT HOUSE – Just under 20 months after ground was ceremoniously broken by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and a host of Cape May County officials, southbound traffic began to flow over three overpasses on Garden State Parkway without stopping for traffic signals.
The $125-million project seemed to progress faster than many imagined possible.
Those infamous, and deadly exits, 9, 10 and 11, at Crest Haven Road, Stone Harbor Boulevard and Shell Bay Avenue, were the location of numerous accidents, some of those claiming lives.
While the project won the hearts of many, there were those who protested the felling of a collective sum of 26 acres of trees that had to be replanted under the state’s No Net Loss Reforestation law. As a result, 19.78 acres would be replanted on site while another 6.25 acres, the equivalent of 1,275 trees were planted elsewhere, Middle Township officials were told in February of this year.
Traffic will be reconfigured so work may begin shortly on the three northbound overpasses.
In June, steel girders were delivered and lifted into place on southbound overpasses at Crest Haven Road, Stone Harbor Boulevard and Shell Bay Avenue. Those girders were produced in Lancaster, Pa. by High Steel Structures LLC. The company is “one of the largest steel fabricators,” according to Lisa Masters, marketing communication and research specialist for High Steel.
The seven girders spanning Stone Harbor Boulevard are the longest in the project at 140-feet each weighing 44,000 pounds (22 tons). They were eased into position June 5 by a crane that made placement seem like play. Workers secured each one, a process that lasted from before sunset until the early hours of June 6.
Each overpass has seven girders, with Crest Haven Road’s being 105 feet long and Shell Bay Avenue girders at 90 feet.
The Herald has provided its readers with weekly photographic updates on progress of the three overpasses, many of those courtesy of photojournalist George Capua. It intends to continue those progress photos until the project is complete. You may view these progress photos here: http://goo.gl/j6A069.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
