UPDATED: Manville Causeway Bridge Work Nearly Finished; Blackwells Mills Road Next

Work on the Manville Causeway bridge should be done by the beginning of August …

UPDATE: Work on the Steep Hill Bridge on Blackwells Mills Road is set to start about Aug. 7, according to an announcement from Somerset County.

The work will take about three months, which will require road closures. A detour route will be posted, using Van Cleef, Amwell and South Middlebush roads, according to the statement.

Blackwells Mills will not be closed until the paving work on Canal Road, between Blackwells Mills and Butler roads, is finished.

Original Story: Work on the Manville Causeway bridge should be complete by the beginning of August, a state spokesman said.

Once that $1.7 million project is done, work will start on a nearly $700,000 replacement of a bridge on Blackwells Mills Road, said a Somerset County engineer.

The latter work will require part of Blackwells Mills Road to be closed for more than two months.

The Manville Causeway work, which began in mid-March, entailed installing a new timber and steel structure and a timber deck with asphalt overlay.

The bridge traverses the Delaware & Raritan Canal and connects Weston Canal Road with Wilhousky Street in Manville.

Stephen Schapiro, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the work should deb done by “early August.”

… when work will begin on replacing the Steep Hill Brook bridge on Blackwells Mills Road.

Once that’s done, work to replace the Steep Hill bridge on Blackwells Mills Road will begin, said Brian Maurer, Somerset County bridge engineer.

The bridge, which was built sometime between the 1930s and 1950s, “is in poor condition,” Maurer said.

The bridge will be slightly widened, from its current 27.8 feet to two 11-foot-wide lanes and 4-foot-wide shoulders, he said.

The new bridge will be constructed of pre-cast concrete, with the facade featuring a “camel-back arch” treatment, he said.

Maurer said plans are to close the road around the bridge for 78 days. Detours will be provided along Van Cleef, Amwell and South Middlebush roads.

Sparwick Contracting of Lafayette was awarded the contract in May.

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