By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Federal funding was used to build the Townsends Inlet Bridge during the Great Depression. Now, federal funds may be used to plan the 83-year-old bridge's demise.
Cape May County will apply for a federal grant to help pay for a study for the replacement of the antiquated bridge, a throwback to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.
The Cape May County Board of Commissioners approved a $1 million study in early 2022 to develop concepts for the bridge’s replacement.
“This is the necessary first step toward the eventual design of the replacement bridge as it establishes the new alignment, height, and type of structure,” Denis Brown, administrative aide to the commissioners, said of the study.
At their meeting on July 12, the county commissioners are expected to approve a resolution seeking a federal grant to offset the cost of the study.
“The resolution is required as part of the grant application to demonstrate that the governing body endorses soliciting federal monies,” Brown said in an email Friday.
Brown explained that the federal government’s massive $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill approved in 2021 includes grants to assist with planning and engineering studies for such projects as the replacement of the Townsends Inlet Bridge.
The study represents another preliminary step in what has been a multiyear process of planning and discussion to build a new bridge to connect Sea Isle City and Avalon over Townsends Inlet. The bridge was originally built in 1939 with federal funds as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal infrastructure projects to create jobs during the Great Depression.
Over the years, the bridge has been closed a number of times for repair projects and reconstruction.
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.
When it is open, the Townsends Inlet Bridge allows motorists to make a direct hop to travel between Sea Isle and Avalon. But when it is closed, drivers must follow a lengthy detour on the Garden State Parkway or Route 9 for trips between both towns.
The 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 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.
Each option would come with different costs and different regulatory requirements because of their various environmental impacts.
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.
