Speed Limit on Ocean City Causeway Changes to 45 MPH

Drivers traveling the Route 52 causeway between Somers Point and Ocean City can go 5 mph faster with a recent increase in the posted speed limit.

The limit changed from 40 mph to 45 mph last week after contractors completed all construction work and made final safety modifications, according to Ocean City Police Capt. Steve Ang.

The new speed limit comes at the close of a six-year, $400 million project to elevate and reconstruct the main travel route into Ocean City. The new causeway includes wide shoulders, two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction and a separated lane for pedestrians and bicycles.

City Council in November 2012 voted to support the new speed limits recommended by the state Department of Transportation.

The 45 mph zone for vehicles heading into Ocean City ends at the top of the new Ninth Street Bridge at a point about one-third of a mile from Palen Avenue — where the speed limit decreases to 35 mph. The speed limit on Ninth Street is 25 mph.

See exact specifications on the speed limit zones for the Route 52 causeway. 

With the causeway open to four lanes of traffic for more than a year now, Ang said Ocean City police have experienced no significant issues with safety, speeding or accidents — even at mid-causeway access points to fishing piers and the new Welcome Center.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Timothy Greeley said the roadway has been identified as a construction zone since the project started six years ago. The speed limit was 35 mph at the start of construction and went up to 40 mph when all four travel lanes opened in May 2012. 

"Upon opening of the new causeway in the final lane configuration, NJDOT traffic engineers conducted a speed study to establish a permanent speed limit on the causeway once construction is completed," Greeley said. "Based on that study, the department determined a new permanent speed limit of 45 mph with a step-down to 35 mph as southbound traffic approaches Ocean City."