Five options for new Rte. 520 bridge
Engineer: County will try to avoid use of eminent domain
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Sea Bright

SEA BRIGHT - The proposed replacement of the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge could result in taking some private property on both sides of the Route 520 span, according to a county official.

While conceding that possibility, Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore assured residents of Sea Bright and Rumson that the county government would negotiate a sale satisfactory to any property owner before initiating eminent domain proceedings.

"The county never uses eminent domain unless there is no other way," said Ettore, who lead last Thursday night's information session on the proposed bridge replacement project held at the Sea Bright Community Center.

"We try to negotiate a sale," Ettore, one of several presenters, told about 40 persons who at the workshop from both Sea Bright and Rumson. "Ninety percent of the property that Monmouth County uses for its projects are through negotiated settlements."

Despite those words, when Ettore and other workshop presenters informally polled the attendees on which of five presented replacement schemes they favored, a majority voted for the design that would allow for a new moveable bridge to be built on the existing span's alignment over the Shrewsbury River.

Unlike three of the other five design options shown by Ettore and representatives of Earth Tech Inc., the county's construction consulting firm, the preferred Alternate 2 only shows the "potential" for taking private properties for the project.

The designs known as Alternates 3, 4, and 5 would definitely involve taking of private properties in Sea Bright and Rumson, according to an information packet distributed by the county officials.

All four of those schemes include details of a temporarily moveable bridge to be placed above the river for use while construction goes on, Ettore explained.

Alternate 1, which was preferred by a few persons in the meeting room, called for rehabilitation of the existing 56-year-old bridge, something that Ettore said the county has been doing by replacing various parts of the span as needed.

"The bridge needs attention," Ettore said. "Its gearing is antiquated and worn. We've been putting Band-Aids on this bridge."

The current movable span is still safe enough to be used as of now, but does not meet seismic standards, and its metal parts are contaminated from salting during ice storms, Ettore went on.

"You can't retrofit a bridge to meet today's standards," he said.

Because the Route 520 bridge serves as one of Sea Bright's three emergency evacuation routes, the county considers replacing the span essential to the safety of borough residents, Ettore pointed out.

"We'd love to not be here tonight," Ettore said. "We don't want to take anyone's property. Give us an alternative to taking property."

Sea Bright's resistance to the third, fourth and fifth alternatives, all calling for some taking of property, is to be expected from borough residents wary of any mention of eminent domain, said Sea Bright Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka-Adams, a workshop attendee.

"You have to understand the sensitivity in that we here in Sea Bright don't like to take people's property," Kalaka-Adams told Ettore and other presenters."

All five alternatives shown during the workshop are conceptual and on display for public input, Ettore replied.

"We're just here to show a concept," he said. "We just want to see what people want."

Alternative 3 calls for retaining the drawbridge, but moving the span slightly south of the existing bridge. If carried out, the construction would impact Rumson's Pocket Park and a residential neighborhood, according to the county.

On the Sea Bright side, the bridge would end just below the Anchorage condominium complex and a nearby gas station and Dunkin' Donuts on the Sea Bright side.

Some right-of-way acquisition from those properties would be needed to permit access to the bridge, Ettore said.

Jack Regan, owner of the property that is the site of the gas station and doughnut store, voiced his displeasure with that scheme.

"Have you thought of the impact on the small businessman?" asked Regan, an Oceanport resident who said that the property has been owned by his family since 1938.

Only a fixed span, not a moveable span as shown in the first three alternatives, would benefit Sea Bright's downtown business district, Regan said.

"In the summer, when the bridge opens every hour and a half, the town is dead," Regan said. "The only thing that would help the borough of Sea Bright is a fixed bridge."

Alternative 4, as presented by Ettore and Earth Tech presenter Karen Krankowski, turned out to be just that - and much more.

As the attendees, seated in folding chairs, buzzed among themselves, Krankowski showed drawings of a much higher fixed bridge to be constructed slightly north of the current one, with much longer approaches in both Sea Bright and Rumson.

The drawing also showed that the exit ramp on the Sea Bright side would actually form an overpass over Route 36 that would curve through the parking lot of a beach club and empty onto the downtown's main thoroughfare.

The beach club and its parking lot would have to be demolished to accommodate the ramp to and from the bridge, Ettore acknowledged.

Kalaka-Adams and others showed skepticism about fitting Alternative 4 into the borough.

"We have limited space in Sea Bright as it is," she said. "Some areas of the land are measured in feet and inches."

Spilling traffic onto Ocean Avenue, which would probably have to be widened to accommodate the ramp, would create "a tremendous impact" on the town, Kalaka-Adams said.

Alternative 5 calling for the bridge to be aligned as its predecessor would be constructed just south of the current bridge designs show.

In Rumson, the county would need to acquire some land to construct the approach and its elevation, which would be located near a residential neighborhood.

In Sea Bright, the county would need to acquire Swing Bridge Park, the original termination point of the circa 1920s bridge.

The attendees did not welcome that proposal either.

"[Alternates] four and five would have too much of an impact," said Councilwoman Maria Fernandes, also in attendance.

County statistics for the span, referred to as Bridge S-32, indicate that an average of 17,270 vehicles per day used the crossing this past July.

The bridge's metal grid opens for marine traffic approximately 4,000 times per year - about 50 times daily during the summer weekends and 15 to 20 times daily during summer weekdays.

Ettore stressed that the county's plan is to replace an aging structure, not to alleviate traffic on area roadways.

All of the comments from the Sea Bright workshop and one scheduled for this coming Tuesday at the Rumson municipal building, will be considered by county officials during this scoping stage of construction planning, Ettore said.

County officials have stated that the bridge replacement project, presently estimated to cost about $30 to $40 million, would not begin until after the state Department of Transportation (DOT) completely replaces the Highlands-Sea Bright Bridge, the Route 36 connection between those two towns.

In addition, Ettore said the Route 520 bridge construction would not start until after the county replaces the 50-foot-high movable Oceanic Bridge between Rumson and Middletown with a fixed, 70-foot-high span at a later date.