By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Motorists may have to be patient while crossing the Townsends Inlet Bridge for trips between Sea Isle City and Avalon.
The 82-year-old drawbridge is undergoing cleaning and painting work prior to new steel railings being installed on the structure, according to the Cape May County Bridge Commission, the bridge’s operator.
As a result, there will be an alternating single lane of traffic to accommodate the work crews through May. Sea Isle issued an advisory on its municipal website saying that motorists may encounter minor delays during the lane closures.
“Please be on the lookout for flag crews and directional signs when approaching the bridge. The T.I. Bridge is expected to be fully open to traffic (both north and south-bound lanes open) during the long Memorial Day Weekend,” the advisory says.
During the lane closures, motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicycle traffic will be restricted to one side of the bridge.
There will be no full closures of the bridge. Also, there will be no work done from Friday to Monday of Memorial Day weekend, according to the Sea Isle Police Department.
Motorists who regularly cross the bridge are used to lane closures or shutdowns. 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.
An $8.6 million reconstruction project that replaced seven of the bridge’s deteriorated spans on the Avalon side resulted in a 10-month closure in 2018 and 2019.
Motorists will squeeze through one lane of alternating traffic during the work.
The Cape May County Bridge Commission would like to replace the bridge with a modern structure, but does not have the money to pay for the estimated $105 million to $175 million project. The county hopes to eventually secure state and federal funding to build a new bridge.
In the meantime, the county has focused on performing only critical upgrades to the bridge that will extend its functional life.
The new steel railings that will be installed on the Townsends Inlet Bridge are part of a “Miscellaneous Priority Repairs project” that just began on all five toll bridges the commission operates in Cape May County along the Ocean Drive, the agency’s Executive Director Karen Coughlin said.
“The cleaning/painting is of old steel on the bridge that needs to be done prior to installing new steel,” Coughlin said in an email.
She added that the bridge commission will be updating its website soon with construction project updates.
The cleaning and painting work for the steel is not related to the commission’s plans to remove graffiti scrawled on the concrete support piers of the Townsends Inlet Bridge on the Sea Isle side, Coughlin said.
The commission has been discussing a cleanup plan for the graffiti and is expected to give an update on the project during its monthly board meeting on April 15.
