A bridge replacement project in Hopewell Township will shut down Hopewell-Rocky Hill Road for approximately five months.
The project will replace two bridges carrying Hopewell-Rocky Hill Road over Bedens Brook. Construction is set to begin Monday, March 11 and will last approximately 150 days, according to a statement from Mercer County officials. The bridge will be closed to all traffic during construction.
The structures are adjacent to one another and are located between Elm Street and Aunt Molly Road, immediately east of the Hopewell Borough line.
A detour direct motorists to use Princeton Avenue/Carter Road, Cherry Valley Road and Great Road. A separate truck detour will also be posted directing truckers to use Carter Road and Route 206. Local traffic will be permitted on the roadway up to the physical road closure point.
Both existing structures — MC No. 252.2 and MC No. 252.8 — are single-span, simply supported, concrete-encased steel multi-beam structures on full-height concrete abutments, which are supported on spread footings.
MC No. 252.2 is considered scour critical and functionally obsolete. The bridge has a sufficiency rating of 58.2 out of 100. County officials said the new structure will consist of a single-span, precast reinforced concrete adjacent beam superstructure with full-height precast concrete abutments and precast concrete spread footings.
The adjacent structure, MC No. 252.8, is not on the National Bridge Inventory System and therefore does not have an associated sufficiency rating. The new structure will consist of a single-span, precast concrete three-sided rigid frame structure supported on precast concrete spread footings.
Both structures will support a 38-foot-wide cartway and a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the north side. The proposed cross section will consist of two 12-foot travel lanes, two 7-foot shoulders and steel four-bar bridge railings installed along both sides.
The contract was awarded on Jan. 24, 2019, to Midlantic Construction LLC of Barnegat, which submitted a bid of $2,016,962.82
