The Business at Hand 

Business Journal
Dec. 20, 2007
Ann Richardson

With construction of a new $141 million fixed-span bridge project well underway, I try if at all possible to avoid the Route 52 Causeway leading into Ocean City. December is a busy month and despite my best attempts to steer clear of the area, I have found myself traversing the causeway numerous times in the past few weeks.

Construction equipment and orange cones line the westbound lanes, effectively eliminating the outside lane heading to Somers Point. Mammoth trucks enter and exit the highway at will, often stopping traffic for short periods of time. There are mounds of dirt everywhere and huge cranes reaching to the sky. American flags proudly fly over the whole mess. It’s a busy place these days, remarkable for the normally placid off-season.

If you make it to or from Somers Point without a delay, you’re lucky.  Do you wonder what this is all going to be like when summer rolls around and we have real traffic to deal with?

Like it or not, we all depend on smooth sailing for this new bridge. Ocean City and Somers Point serve as a gateway to Cape May County. Unless you travel through Cumberland County to get to our corner of the world, you will be affected by any gnarly mess that might develop.

Ocean City officials are working in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Transportation to provide up-to-date information regarding the project. Ocean City’s website – www.ocean-city.nj.us provides a link to a treasure chest of information about the new 2.8-mile causeway, including an in depth overview of the project, detailed sketches, colorful computer renderings and a construction schedule.

The information is comprehensive, including a section titled Frequently Asked Questions. At the top of the list – “Why is it necessary to replace the bridge?”

It’s hard to believe that anyone would have to ask such a question. Stating the obvious, engineers explain that the 70-year old bridge and causeway span was designed for antiquated traffic patterns and no longer capable of serving our communities. Now handling vehicular traffic unforeseen in 1935, the out-dated causeway is not as safe as it could, or should be. The ten-foot lanes are narrow. New bridges are built with 12-foot lanes and shoulders for safety. With substantial cracking, the existing draw-bridges are severely deteriorating. An increase in marine traffic over the years requires more frequent openings. The combination of sailing and vehicular traffic compounds congestion and hampers emergency vehicle access. Inevitable high tides and storm situations drive waves across the roadway. Tidal flooding makes the causeway impassible.  

Of course we need a new bridge; we don’t need convincing. Sketches of the new state-of-the-art project– one of the largest ever undertaken by the NJDOT – showcase a modern gateway arching over the Great Egg Harbor Bay. A new fishing pier, welcome center and shared-use walkway for bicycles and pedestrians will be wonderful additions. I suppose we should keep this all in mind as we sacrifice today for a better tomorrow through the construction of this majestic masterpiece that will one day be our new bridge. It will take patience, a lot of patience. With completion of the project scheduled for 2012, it’s going to be a long six years isn’t it? 

The bridge isn’t the only area I’ve been avoiding lately. Ocean City’s downtown is beautifully adorned with festive greenery, the shops offer a wide array of goods and the merchants are for the most part wonderfully accommodating and friendly. With joyful fanfare, Santa rode into town last week in the annual Christmas Parade.

We have such a gem in our downtown, so much to offer, but for the last few weeks it was barely accessible. It seems it’s time to replace the curbs and sidewalks on Asbury Avenue, the heart of the city’s downtown. When people are Christmas shopping! Understandably, merchants began to complain. Again, the most frequently asked question is “Why is it necessary to replace the existing infrastructure?” This time, the answer is not so obvious, and the timing is suspect.

I attempted several trips downtown last week. Instead of shopping, however, I did drive-bys. One day, I had pressing business with a downtown pharmacy but I was not able to pick up my prescription on the first two attempts. With one entire side of the street blocked off to parking, and the street barely accessible, there was no place to park so I kept on going. If I couldn’t park, you couldn’t park either. Did anyone shop? How many people spent their money elsewhere?

Unlike the new causeway, this is a project that might have waited. We need – eventually - a full, curb-to-curb restoration of the street.  Business owners struggle under the best of conditions. It’s been a tough year for the merchants. We had mild, pleasant days for shopping, but bulldozers and monster trucks on Asbury Avenue. Workers blasting the concrete drowned out the Christmas music.

Adding to the drama, merchants discovered construction workers taking many of the limited parking places available for their own vehicles. Some merchants suggested that squeaky wheels were getting greased, as certain sections of the downtown allegedly received special treatment.  Pressure mounted, and city officials relented.

“The construction was shut down today, effective at noon,” said Ocean City’s business administrator, James Rutala Friday afternoon. “And it will not start again until after the holidays.”

Rutala acknowledged that the timing of the project was problematic.

“There is never a good time, obviously you can’t do concrete and asphalt in the middle of the winter,” he said. “But given the interest of the businesses, we have stopped the construction.”

Up against the clock, Rutala said scheduling difficulties with all of the utility companies involved with the restoration project made it necessary to commence construction.

“The utility companies have to get in there and replace utilities when everything is torn up,” he said. “There is a lot of coordinating. If you want to get it done, you have to do it when they are available. Unfortunately, this means a lot of inconvenience. We had to get started.”

We – the limited year-round population - have to deal with minor hassle now, or a major nuisance later if the project is not completed when spring rolls around; or worse yet, summer when tens of thousands of guests arrive.

“We started after Labor Day, obviously we can’t do this in the summer,” he said. “We hope to be done before Memorial Day. Unfortunately, we ran into Christmas.”

Between the bridge and the downtown construction, Rutala said we are going to have to be tolerant. He suggests we look at the big picture.

“We have to bear with the construction, and focus on the end product,” he said. “We’re going to have a beautiful downtown, and we’re going to have a new causeway, that when completed, will be like no other. It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be wider and much safer. We’re going to have a bike path. It will, in the end, be worth all of the inconvenience.”

But the project is not without pitfalls. Surely we all remember the Big Bang, the day the ancient, deteriorating Ocean City-Longport Bridge fell into the Inlet forever. Traffic snarled for months on end, including a large chunk of a busy, hot summer. Like the rest of us - Rutala, who travels to work everyday from Linwood - hopes that scenario is not repeated on a much larger scale this time around.

“If and when it closes, with bridge problems as it has in the past, the county has agreed to put two toll takers on duty at the Longport Bridge,” he said. A second toll taker will immediately be summoned to ease the backup at the Northend. Until this person arrives, an “honor basket” will be placed in the second lane to ease the backup. Traffic will split north and south, with a bulk of the traffic heading to 34^th Street. It will be a mess.

“Hopefully, the bridge won’t close,” he said. This might be the peaceful calm before the storm. Someday soon, the bridge will be closed for a short time. Again, we have to sacrifice, this time temporary sacrifice for temporary improvement while officials put a band-aid on a seemingly impossible situation.

“We do plan to close the bridge for a period of time this winter to repair the existing bridges,” said Rutala.

On very hot days the past few summers, the draw-bridges have expanded, and when marine traffic harkens them open, they won’t close. The boats were long gone, happily sailing while thousands of agitated motorists were stranded on the island.  Officials are hoping to repair the aging spans so this doesn’t happen again when the thermometer rises.

“We don’t want to have these problems, so the bridge is going to be fixed,” said Rutala. “We don’t know when this is going to occur. We are trying to get this information, and as soon as we know we will let you know.” 

In suggesting that we focus on the end product – a spectacular new causeway - Rutala is right to be optimistic. We need to look at this project with our glasses half full – not half empty – if we are to survive this conundrum. We will follow this challenging project, and as events warrant investigate all the angles. Relax and take a deep breath. It’s going to be a long six years. At least we’ll have a beautiful downtown – if we can get in to town to enjoy it.