New bridge, signal in place on Rt. 524

HOWELL - With a snip of the scissors cutting a bright red ribbon stretched across Route 524, a new bridge on the county road was officially opened for travel on Nov. 25.

Route 524 in Howell is also known as Adelphia Road.

Monmouth County representatives and local officials were on hand to dedicate the newly completed project that involved realigning Route 524, installing a traffic signal and the bridge replacement itself.

"The project was very significant for a number of reasons," Freeholder William C. Barham said. "First, all of the design work was handled in-house by our own engineers at a reduced cost to taxpayers. Second, we built a temporary span next to the bridge so detours were unnecessary. This was important for a road that gets such high usage by the residents of Howell."

According to a press release, the project was comprised of three separate components. In addition to replacing the bridge on Route 524, its intersection with Route 524A was realigned. Route 524A is also known as Squankum Yellow Brook Road. Lastly, a traffic light was installed at the intersection of Route 524 and Squankum-Yellow Brook Road.

"The project greatly improves the safety of the traveling public by realigning and signalizing a severely skewed and heavily traveled intersection, installing a fully actuated traffic light and replacing a structurally deficient and functionally obsolete bridge," Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore said.

"Having traveled this way so many times myself I know firsthand how important it was to realign the intersection and widen the road and bridge," Freeholder Barbara J. McMorrowsaid at the ribbon cutting. "This is a wonderful improvement for the residents of Howell."

McMorrow is the former principal of Howell High School, which is on Squankum- Yellow Brook Road.

Road improvements consisted of widening of about 1,400 feet of Route 524 to a consistent 40-foot pavement width and realigning and widening about 1,200 feet of Squankum- Yellow Brook Road. The new T-intersection provides a through lane in each direction on Route 524, a dedicated left turn lane on Squankum-Yellow Brook Road westbound and northbound, and a dedicated right turn lane on Route 524 eastbound.

The bridge project entailed construction of a temporary bypass road to maintain vehicular traffic on Route 524, and the removal of an existing single-span bridge in its entirety. A new single-span bridge was constructed with reinforced concrete abutments and wing walls supported on spread footings with scour protection, pre-stressed concrete voided slab beam superstructure and reinforced concrete parapets and railing, according to the press release.

The new bridge carries two 12-foot-wide lanes of traffic with 8-foot-wide shoulders and includes a 5-foot-wide sidewalk on both the north and south sides of the bridge.

The entire project, including the road, bridge, traffic and signal design, survey, drafting, permit procurement, utility coordination, right-of-way acquisition and inspection was performed in-house by the Monmouth County Department of Public Works and Engineering.

This project was constructed by Green Construction of South River at an estimated final contract cost of $1,950,000. The project was completed within budget and, by not detouring Route 524, with minimal inconvenience to the traveling public, according to the press release.