By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
After a series of flood-related closures during Tropical Storm Ophelia, Cape May County is considering the possibility of raising the seawall that protects the approach road to the Townsends Inlet Bridge on the Avalon side.
Police temporarily closed the bridge to motor vehicle traffic a few times starting Sept. 22 and continuing later in the week when stormy weather sent waves crashing over the rock seawall and flooded the road.
Hoping to alleviate what has been a recurring problem over the years, Cape May County officials have been discussing the possibility of raising the seawall to prevent the waves from flooding Ocean Drive near the bridge. One idea is to build a 2-foot “cap” on top of the seawall to make the road more flood-resistant.
“The flooding issue is not so much the bridge but the over-wash along the approach roadway due to high tides and wave action. The permanent solution would be to increase the height of the seawall,” County Engineer Bob Church said in an email Tuesday.
The county has not yet prepared a formal estimate of how much it would cost to raise the seawall. Church estimated the total cost for designs, permitting and construction would likely be in the $3 million range, assuming that the concrete cap concept did not require additional fortification of the seawall.
“(But) this is just a guess without the benefit of preparing a detailed estimate with the appropriate information,” he noted in the email.
Although the county owns the road, it would likely need regulatory approval from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and possibly the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to raise the seawall.
The NJDEP regulates coastal development, Church said. He added that he believes the Army Corps would also have to give its input because it was involved with the initial construction of the seawall.
Throughout Ophelia’s stormy visit to the shore, Sea Isle City police issued a number of alerts informing the public that the Townsends Inlet Bridge was temporarily closed to motor vehicle traffic due to road flooding on the Avalon side. Traffic alerts about the bridge being closed or reopened went out on Sept. 22, Sept. 23, Sept. 24, Sept. 26 and Sept. 27.
Antonio Colon, project manager for the Cape May County Bridge Commission, said the Townsends Inlet Bridge itself was not closed. He pointed out that the commission, which operates the bridge, still had to keep an employee on duty in the event the drawbridge needed to be opened to allow boat traffic to pass underneath.
“To put this simply, whenever something like this happens, the Townsends Inlet Bridge is not closed. The roadway leading to the bridge is closed on the Avalon side due to flooding and water making its way over the seawall there,” Colon said in an email.
“The Bridge Commission does not close the bridge. We still must man the bridge in most instances in case an opening is required,” he added.
Colon also emphasized that the Bridge Commission neither owns nor controls the approach road to the bridge.
“It belongs to the county, and the police will notify all relevant parties of the road closure,” he said.
When it is open, Townsends Inlet Bridge allows motorists to make a direct hop to travel between Sea Isle and Avalon. When the bridge is closed to traffic, drivers must follow a lengthy detour on the Garden State Parkway or Route 9 for trips between both towns.
Built in 1939, the antiquated bridge has gone through a series of shutdowns in recent years for structural repairs, maintenance work and related road construction. On top of everything else are the road closures caused by waves crashing over the seawall.
Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio, who is also the director of the Cape May County Board of Commissioners, has repeatedly expressed frustration with the disruptions to travel and business caused by bridge or road closures.
“The bridge has added a couple of gray hairs to my head,” Desiderio said in a 2021 interview about all the travel troubles over the years.
The bridge underwent an $8.6 million reconstruction that forced it to close for 10 months in 2018 and 2019 while seven deteriorated spans on the Avalon side were replaced.
Long-range plans include replacing the old span with a new bridge. The construction of a new bridge is estimated to cost between $65.7 million and $167.7 million and would take years to complete, according to a county transportation report.
In a preliminary step, the county has authorized the hiring of an engineer to begin the concept development phase for a new bridge.
The county does not have the money to replace the bridge, but hopes to eventually secure state and federal funding to build a new one.
