New Ocean City Bridge Span to Open on Friday

The new bridge into Ocean City on the Route 52 causeway will open on Friday, May 13.

The state Department of Transportation announced Wednesday afternoon that a new traffic pattern will bring two lanes of vehicles traveling onto the island over the new bridge span. Two lanes of traffic leaving Ocean City will use the old Ninth Street Bridge.

The state is in the middle of a five-year, $400 million project to replace the entire causeway and the two drawbridges at either end. Traffic has been limited to one lane in each direction while construction proceeded over the winter, and Wednesday's announcement helps the state make good on a promise to have four lanes of traffic open by Memorial Day to accommodate summer crowds.

After Labor Day, the old Ninth Street Bridge will be demolished, and a second two-lane span of new bridge will be completed. Traffic will return to one lane in each direction.

At the end of the project in May 2012, cars traveling to Ocean City will drive over two towering fixed-span bridges (eliminating two drawbridges, which opened for boat traffic and often malfunctioned in the summer) and an elevated causeway (high above flood levels).

But for much of the winter and spring, Ocean City business owners feared that construction would disrupt traffic on the road that provides a lifeline to the island's summer economy. Ocean City and Somers Point officials asked the state to close the road entirely during the winter to let construction crews catch up.

The state did not honor that request but agreed in April to the new traffic pattern that uses two lanes of the old Ninth Street Bridge for traffic leaving the island. At that time, the state said it would have four lanes of traffic open by Memorial Day weekend.

“We promised four travel lanes by Memorial Day because we understand that efficient access to shore destinations is essential to a successful and enjoyable summer season,” New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner James Simpson said in a written statement.  “We are pleased to announce that we are delivering the needed travel capacity ahead of schedule.”

Vehicles make 40,000 trips per day across the causeway during the peak summer season, according to the state.

 A portable electronic sign has warned motorists all week of a "new traffic pattern starting Thursday," though the actual date is now Friday.

Road construction work continues on a section of Ninth Street from Bay to West avenues.  One inbound lane is currently in use. The past several weekends have seen traffic backups that start at the intersection of Ninth Street and Bay Avenue as cars move from the causeway onto Ninth Street.

A second lane of inbound traffic on Ninth Street will open by Memorial Day, and a second lane of outbound traffic on Ninth Street will open later in June, according to the state Department of Transportation. When work is complete, Ninth Street will provide two travel lanes in each direction with an additional center left-turn lane shared by traffic in both directions.

The contractor at work on the project -- G.A. & F.C. Wagman, Inc., of York, PA, and R.E. Pierson Construction Co., Inc., of Pilesgrove, (doing business as Route 52 Constructors) -- said the new traffic pattern for the summer will help move the completion date of the entire road project from October 2012 to Memorial Day 2012.

"The time savings primarily will be generated by shifting work this summer to a less constrained work environment in the Somers Point construction zone near the existing Ship Channel lift bridge," the state Department of Transportation said in a release. "Work will not reduce normal traffic capacity in Somers Point."

Work on a new visitors center, fishing piers and other amenities will be completed by the end of 2012. 

Representatives from the state Department of Transportation are scheduled to give an update on the bridge project to the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, and they'll have good news to bring to the luncheon on Thursday.