By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
When it is open, the Townsends Inlet Bridge allows motorists to make a quick, direct hop to travel between Sea Isle City and Avalon. But when it is closed, drivers must follow a lengthy and circuitous detour on the Garden State Parkway or Route 9 for trips between both towns.
Dave Ferguson is more than familiar with the detour routes. Five times this year he tried crossing over the bridge, only to find it closed, he said.
“It’s not just me. It’s an inconvenience for a lot of folks traveling to Avalon,” said Ferguson, a Strathmere resident who drives two of his four grandchildren to school in Avalon using the bridge.
Frustrated by the surprise closings, Ferguson is appealing to Sea Isle officials to put up a new sign on John F. Kennedy Boulevard that would warn motorists well in advance when the bridge is shut down for bad weather or other reasons.
The alternative, he said, is for motorists to drive all the way up to the bridge entrance on 94th Street, at the extreme southern tip of Sea Isle, and then have to turn around after they discover it is shut down.
Appearing at the Oct. 25 City Council meeting, Ferguson asked Sea Isle officials to give the bridge closings “more urgency.”
Council President Mary Tighe and Mayor Leonard Desiderio expressed sympathy with Ferguson, noting that they have also been frustrated with the bridge’s history of abrupt closings, mostly during bad weather.
Tighe said there are times when the bridge is seemingly closed “at the drop of the hat.”
As a safety precaution, officials on the Avalon side occasionally close down the bridge when waves crash over a seawall and flood the roadway.
“It’s 16 miles round trip. I understand,” Desiderio said of the lengthy detour between Sea Isle and Avalon when the bridge closes down.
Desiderio, who also serves as a Cape May County commissioner, told Ferguson that he will find out if the county could install more warning signs to let motorists know when the bridge is closed.
“We have to get notification quicker when the bridge is closed,” Desiderio said in an interview.
There are already two “Bridge Closed When Flashing” signs on the southbound side of Landis Avenue heading toward Townsends Inlet. One is at 62nd Street and the other is near 88th Street, only about six blocks before the base of the bridge at 94th Street.
Ferguson believes the two existing signs are simply located too close to the bridge to give drivers much warning when it is shut down. In addition, there have been times when he believes the signs weren’t working properly, or he simply didn’t notice they were flashing when he drove by them.
Desiderio assured Ferguson that the city will inspect the signs to make sure they are working properly when the bridge closes down.
In the meantime, Sea Isle Police Chief Anthony Garreffi has advised Ferguson to sign up for the traffic and storm alerts issued by the police department by text and email. The alerts also notify motorists when the bridge is closed.
The new sign that Ferguson would like to see installed on JFK Boulevard would be on the main entryway into Sea Isle and at the midpoint of the island. He said it would save motorists from the hassle of driving the few extra miles up to the bridge and then having to turn around if it is closed.
“It’s a logical place to put a sign,” he said.
The Townsends Inlet Bridge is one of five toll bridges operated by the Cape May County Bridge Commission that connect the beach communities along the scenic Ocean Drive from Ocean City to Cape May.
The 83-year-old bridge has gone through a series of shutdowns in recent years for structural repairs, maintenance work and related road construction. It 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.
The Cape May County Board of Commissioners approved a $1 million study early this year to develop concepts for the bridge’s replacement.
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 released in 2020.
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.
Cost estimates range so widely because there are different alignments that a new bridge could follow when it is built over Townsends Inlet. Some proposed alignments would take the bridge closer to the ocean or bay, while others would follow the same path as the existing span.
Under a projected timeline, preliminary work such as completing the designs, engineering and obtaining the regulatory permits for a new bridge might take as long as six years. Construction could add another three years, according to the county’s 2020 report.
