Newburgh Bridge Replacement Gets Start Date, Road to Close Until 2015

If at first you don’t succeed, try try again.

That’s what the Morris County Department of Engineering will be doing in June, with a newly scheduled date to replace the Newburgh Road Bridge set for Monday, June 15.

The project, which has been bumped numerous times over the course of several years, will do away with the current bridge to make room for a wider path allowing a full lane of travel in each direction and a sidewalk over the Musconetcong River. The bridge connects Washington and Mansfield Townships as well as Morris and Warren Counties.

Originally scheduled to begin this month, the Department of Environmental Protection but the brakes on the project, according to the Morris County Department of Engineering, due to the aquatic life in the river. Any construction at that time would have posed a threat to the wildlife in that area.

It is expected the impact on aquatic life will be significantly reduced come June, the county said.

In September 2013 construction on a gas line along Newburgh Road began, and was completed in mid-November, setting the stage for the bridge replacement to begin. With the prep work now complete, June 15 will be the actual start date for work on the structure.

The project is expected to last six to eight months, and will keep Newburgh Road closed to through traffic during that time.

The current structure was built in 1908 and has been deemed structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. Plans to replace the bridge have been in the works for more than a decade.

The bridge is currently slightly more than 20-feet wide, and the new structure will be a total of 50-feet wide – 41-feet of which will be used for roadway.

Detours will take motorists heading north on Schooley’s Mountain Road to Hackettstown or Mansfield down to the light at the intersection of Rt. 57 and Rt. 182, where drivers will need to make a left hand turn to reach their original destination. 

Drivers can also use alternate routes like Kings Highway and Stephensburg Road, off of Pleasant Grove, to reach Mansfield Township.