Stone Harbor, NJ 96th Street Bridge To Close for Repairs Again

For the second time this year, the Stone Harbor Boulevard Bridge will be closing at night for important repairs to the bascule span of the 93-year-old bridge. Drivers entering and leaving Stone Harbor are being detoured to other entry points for Seven Mile Island during the four nights of construction work.

Starting on Monday Night September 18th, the 96th Street Bridge entering Stone Harbor will be closed from 8 pm to 6 am each night through Thursday, September 21st. The Cape May County Road 657 enters the downtown section of the Jersey Shore town and has been an ongoing project that has cost the County over 2 million dollars in recent years.  A couple of months ago, Cape May County was awarded $3,057,629 for various improvements to the bridge including the needed Bascule replacement.  This month, the bridge is being shut down at night to address the deflection/vibration of the top side bascule back plates that are situated under traffic loads. These repairs will address this condition along with other priority repairs deemed necessary by the latest NBIS bridge inspection and address deficiencies noted in the latest inspection report.

The Stone Harbor 96th Street Bridge was closed for emergency repairs back in July of this year as Cape May County Officials continue to monitor the structural integrity of this unique style of bridge structure.  Known to engineers as a Rall-type bascule, this rare architectural type was the design for only six bridges in all of the United States but only one in the state of New Jersey. Because of the unique history of the bridge, it was registered on the New Jersey State Historic Register and the National Register of Historic Places per action by the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office in 1983.

Each night this week, traffic will be detoured to enter Stone Harbor from either the north or south:

The Avalon Boulevard Bridge, which enters that municipality at 30th Street via County Route 602, is accessible from Garden State Parkway Exit 13 and Route 9 in Middle Township.  This northern entry for Stone Harbor is free of any tolls in either direction.

The Ocean Drive Toll bridge, which enters Stone Harbor at the southern end of the island, is accessible to motorists who turn onto County Route 619 via North Wildwood Boulevard.  There have been no public announcements about if the toll bridge will make any changes to its toll policy during the repairs on the 96th Street Bridge.

From 1983 to 1985 and later in 1998, the Stone Harbor Boulevard Bridge underwent structural repairs to modernize the drawbridge's technology along with making repairs to the overall structural integrity. The bridge was closed for emergency repairs in October 2016 and June 2020 to deal with structural issues caused by "fatigue cracking" and to "restore full integrity" according to a Cape May County Official report published in February of 2022.

This report, published by the Cape May County Department of Engineering and the Cape May County Bridge Commission, was the precursor to the work being done this summer as there are still repairs that need to be done to the bascule span of the Stone Harbor Boulevard Bridge; This is the part of the bridge that opens-and-closes for boats to pass underneath, also the part of the bridge that makes it so unique to architectural history.  The recent inspections and Engineering Reports opened the door for Cape May County to receive grants to fix this bridge.

NOTE: "THE COMPREHENSIVE BRIDGE REPLACEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT PLAN for CAPE MAY COUNTY AND BRIDGE COMMISSION BRIDGES" report is in PDF format on the Cape May County Government website for public perusal.