Route 52 Causeway to be closed for drawbridge inspection into Ocean City

(Trenton) - The New Jersey Department of Transportation today announced that the Route 52 Causeway will be closed to traffic for a scheduled federal bridge safety inspection of the Ninth Street drawbridge over Beach Thorofare leading into Ocean City.

The entire Route 52 Causeway will be closed to traffic between Somers Point and Ocean City, beginning at 9 a.m., Tuesday, November 16 until around late Wednesday night, November 17.

Motorists who normally would use the Route 52 Causeway will be diverted to the nearby Ocean City-Longport Bridge to the north or the 34th Street Bridge to the south.

NJDOT will utilize the causeway closure to perform necessary drainage work in Ocean City.

The drawbridge is being replaced with a new fixed-span structure as part of the $251 million second phase, or Contract B, of the Route 52 Causeway replacement. The project is also replacing the lift bridge at the Somers Point end of the Causeway with a fixed-span bridge. NJDOT recently reconfigured the Somers Point Circle and continues improvements to MacArthur Boulevard in Somers Point. NJDOT also will provide a new visitor’s center, multi-use sidewalks for bicyclists and pedestrians and several fishing piers as part of the project.

NJDOT expects the new Causeway to be completed by the end of 2012.

The initial, $145 million phase of construction, Contract A, began in October 2006 and was completed in summer 2009.

Variable message signs on Route 52, Route 9 and the Garden State Parkway will notify motorists of the bridge closure and associated detour routes. Real time travel and construction information is available online at www.511nj.org