The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
UPDATE 2: The Manville Causeway bridge is now closed, according to a state Department of Transportation spokesman.
Repairs to the Manville Causeway bridge and part of Route 518 will mean road closures and detours into the summer.
Rehabilitation of the causeway bridge – which traverses the Delaware & Raritan Canal and connects Weston Canal Road with Wilhousky Street in Manville – is expected to start on March 12 and last until early summer, according to a press release on the work from the state Department of Transportation.
The $1.7 million project entails installing a new timber and steel structure and a timber deck with asphalt overlay, according to the release.
The work will be performed in accordance with New Jersey Historic Preservation Office standards because the bridge is in a historic district, the release said.
A detour will be posted which includes Schoolhouse Road, Elizabeth Avenue, County Route 514/Amwell Road, and Millstone River Road, the release said.
Graphic: Somerset County
Somerset County engineers hope the $5 million Route 518 project will correct problems with a section of the road – such as “sharp horizontal curvature, lack of shoulders, pavement condition, and storm water runoff,” according to a statement about the work – that has led to many traffic accidents.
The work will be performed on a three-quarter-mile stretch of the road, near County Route 603. The work will include widening for shoulders, installation of new storm sewers and a realignment of the main curve there.
The latter work will require blasting to cut into the hillside, according to the statement.
No specific date has been given for the start of the work, but it is expected to last two months.
