'Environmental Constraints' Halt Newburgh Road Bridge Replacement

Bridge over troubled waters? Or just a troubled bridge over a river?

It took years to actually begin, and now the bridge replacement project on Newburgh Road has stalled yet again.

Due to environmental constraints, Washington Township Mayor Ken Short said, work on the bridge will not resume until spring of 2014 at the earliest. That could even stall, Short said, until early summer.

In the past week, construction on a gas line in the area that began in September was completed, paving the way for the bridge work to begin.

Replacement of the structure was originally slated for 2012, then was move to 2013. Once the work begins the length of Newburgh Road will be closed to non-local traffic for up to a year.

Washington Township now has to deal with another bridge project in the area as well. Local officials will meet with Hackettstown representatives and members of the New Jersey Department of Transportation Monday night to go over details about the Rt. 46 bridge that connects the two towns, as well as Morris and Warren counties.

Preliminary details for that bridge project show a prefabricated structure will be brought in and dropped into place, and that the entire job could take as little as one week.

Once Newburgh Road is closed, drivers heading north on Schooley’s Mountain Road will need to detour through Rt. 57 to reach Hackettstown and Mansfield points. An alternate route would be to take outlet roads from Pleasant Grove – Kings Highway, Stephensburg, Penwell – out to Rt. 57.

The Morris County Department of Engineering did not respond to messages left by Patch regarding the environmental constraints or new schedule.