Sidewalk Work This Month, Route 50 Drawbridge Fix Likely Next Month

Sidewalk Work This Month, Route 50 Drawbridge Fix Likely Next Month
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OCEAN CITY — State Highway Administration (SHA) crews were out working on a sidewalk project on the west end of the Route 50 bridge this week in advance of a larger repair likely next month to repair an issue that caused the draw span to be stuck up last summer.

On Tuesday, SHA crews began replacing about 300 feet of sidewalk on the south side of the Route 50 bridge. The sidewalk was deteriorating and in need of repair and the work caused minor lane closures in the area of the project. When SHA crews finish the section of sidewalk on the east side of the bridge, they will cross over and replace another 300 feet on the west side of the span roughly in front of Hooper’s for a total of about 600 feet.

The $55,000 project is expected to be complete before the holidays depending on the weather, according to SHA Media Relations Manager David Buck. Despite the persistent cold weather and high winds early this week, the project was moving along according to schedule.

“With concrete, there is no major temperature restriction,” he said. “We can pour down to about 30 degrees, then if it’s close to the low 30s, the crews will use blankets during the curing process.”

The sidewalk replacement project is being conducted in advance of a larger repair project on the drawbridge portion of the span, which malfunctioned in late July and caused the bridge to be stuck in the open position for about five hours on a busy Saturday afternoon and evening in July. That larger project is now expected to get started in mid-January.

“Our crews plan to be out with the Ocean City bridge repairs following last summer’s incident in the next month to six weeks,” said Buck this week. “The crews that will be making the Ocean City bridge repairs are working on another repair project right now on Kent Island, so it will be at least into mid-January for the Ocean City bridge.”

When the repairs to the malfunctioning drawbridge portion of the span do begin, the impact on local traffic is expected to be minimized. SHA initially planned for off-peak entire closures of the bridge, but now believe the work can be accomplished with less impact on motorists.

“It is worth noting when we do come down to make the repairs under the Ocean City bridge, it will only require a single-lane eastbound Route 50 closure and no total closure,” said Buck.

Around 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, the Route 50 drawbridge got stuck in the up position following a routine opening and closing. The malfunctioning bridge almost immediately caused heavy resort traffic on a bust Saturday afternoon in late July to back up along Route 50 and the dominoes toppled backward to Routes 589 and 90, and along Route 113 to Route 54 and into Lower Delaware as motorists attempted to find alternative routes into the resort, essentially causing gridlock across much of northern Worcester County.

The bridge remained stuck in the open position for about five hours until the State Highway Administration (SHA) private sector engineering firm Covington, which routinely maintains and inspects the bridge, could get on the scene to analyze the problem. In an otherwise luckless situation, Covington’s chief engineer was vacationing in Ocean City at the time and was fishing offshore before being brought in to begin assessing the problem.

Around 8 p.m., with traffic backups now spiraling in every direction in and around the resort, the decision was made to hand-crank the bridge into the closed position to begin allowing vehicles to access the bridge in and out of the resort. Covington’s engineers determined the problem was caused by a cracked mount on the drawbridge’s drive shaft that would not allow the span to be lowered completely.