If you’re headed for the beach this summer, you’re in for a nice surprise at the northern end of the Jersey Shore: a curvaceous new bridge on Route 36 linking Highlands with Sandy Hook and points south.
The new bridge should provide some driving relief for beachgoers accustomed to long lines of traffic when approaching the old bridge across South Shrewsbury Channel.
One span of the new bridge opened in fall of 2009, offering two 12-foot-wide traffic lanes in each direction. Alas, the second span won’t open until this December, meaning there will still be slowdowns on busy summer weekends this season—though not the frustrating fifteen-minute, engines-off delays that motorists suffered when the old draw bridge opened for a passing boat.
“Most of the 2 million annual visitors to Sandy Hook will use the bridge, and most of that use is in summer,” says Pete McCarthy, manager for the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area.
If nothing else, motorists should enjoy their first sight of the unusual span. Most bridges are straight, with curves in the approach roads. On this one, the curves are up in the air, 65 feet above the channel. The effect is exhilarating, something like a roller coaster launch for a day at the beach.
The curvy design was dictated by the challenge of building a new bridge while the old one was still in use. The curve happens where the new bridge had to bend around the sections of the old one that opened for boat traffic.
The new bridge includes an 8-foot-wide bike lane and a pedestrian walk on each span. For bicyclists, the bridge is a bonanza. “If you add the Henry Hudson Trail from Freehold to Highlands to the trail out Sandy Hook, you’ve got almost 31 continuous bike miles,” says Atlantic Highlands Mayor Fred Rast.
Building the bridge is a three-year project for South Plainfield-based JH Reid Company. Eric Reid, 43, son of company founder Jim Reid, says the $131.7 million pre-cast segmental bridge will be long-lived and pretty much maintenance free. There’s no need for paint because the premade segments and piles leave little exposed steel.
When New Jersey’s Department of Transportation said it was time for a new bridge to replace the worn-out one built in 1932, residents, yachtsmen, fishermen, naturalists, and historians howled.
Ever since Henry Hudson poked around these waters in his little vessel, Half Moon, sailors have sought refuge south of the bridge in the hurricane hole under Portland Point. But the new bridge—without a draw—will exclude ships with tall masts from this anchorage.
Anglers fretted that the new bridge would keep them from pulling their catch over its high railings. Besides, nobody can fish from 65 feet up. Naturalists feared a four-lane bridge would speed up traffic on the two-lane road of the tender barrier beach that forms Sandy Hook and Sea Bright. Historians lamented a modern structure rising in front of the 148-year-old Twin Lights Lighthouse, now a museum.
Completion of the first span has not assuaged any of those fears. What’s more, residents near the construction site report cracks in their walls, fallen chandeliers, and misaligned steps. The DOT has promised that homeowners will be compensated for damages determined to be construction-related.
“From my house I see massive spans of concrete with concrete labyrinth walkways in the distance,” says Fran Benson, a close neighbor of the new bridge who loved the way everything stopped for the old draw. “I feel like I’m living on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.”
Still, many locals are enthusiastic about the bridge. When the dust has settled and the construction equipment is gone, it’s likely the people of Highlands will embrace this new landmark. Mayor Anna Little is expecting a party—say, some clams and a keg on a hot summer night with the moon rising out of the ocean.
Have a look for yourself. To get to the bridge from the Garden State Parkway, take Exit 105 (Eatontown) or Exit 117 (Keyport) and follow Route 36, which swings out toward the Shore in a loop between the two exits.
Leigh Sorensen is a landscape designer and painter who likes to paddle her kayak around the marshes just south of the new bridge. She lives in Rumson.