Monday, July 16, 2012
Yet another bold truck driver attempts to pass below the rail bridge in Red Bank and gets stuck.
You've probably heard this one before. A box truck entering Red Bank from Middletown over the Front Street Bridge steered by a too-confident driver tries to squeeze beneath a New Jersey Transit rail bridge that looks just tall enough. It's a common tail here in Red Bank and a regular source of frustration for commuters trying to get into town because the ending is always the same: truck gets stuck, police arrive on scene and establish detours, and the truck driver looks some combination of embarrassed, worried, or foolish as tow trucks pull their damaged vehicles out from under the bridge. So it was early Monday afternoon as yet another box truck — unofficially the eighth of this year alone — got stuck under the rail bridge, causing major…
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The NJ Transit railroad bridge that passes over Front Street is a constant source of traffic trouble as an estimated 12 trucks get stuck under it each year.
For some reason it's become a regular theme in Red Bank. A truck too tall meets a bridge too low. Conventional wisdom says take the safe route. Pay heed to posted signs, recognize your surroundings - and the steel girders that really do just seem a smidge too low anyway - and turn around to find another way. Along the Front Street bridge, however, practical advice doesn't seem to go a long way. Call it inexperience, call it stupidity, but when it comes to trucks getting stuck under the railroad bridge that crosses Front Street, it's hardly a rare occurrence. According to Capt. Darren McConnell, Red Bank police have recorded 40 separate incidents of vehicles getting stuck under the Front Street bridge since 2009. That's an average of about…
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Red Bank's Front Street bridge connecting the borough to Middletown will be closed from Thursday night into Friday morning for maintenance.
Red Bank's West Front Street bridge will be closed Thursday night into Friday morning for routine maintenance, the county announced Tuesday. To allow maintenance crews to tighten deck plates on the bridge, the county will temporarily close the bridge that connects the borough to Middletown over swimming river at 9 p.m. Thursday night. The bridge will reopen at 5 a.m. Friday. The closure is weather permitting, the county said in a release. Vehicles approaching Red Bank from the Middletown side will be detoured down Hubbard Avenue, right onto Navesink River Road, and then onto Route 35 south, which will take them into Red Bank. Vehicles attempting to enter Middletown will take the same route, just in reverse. The county plans to replace …
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore explains why guardrails are not good as a walker's shield from traffic.
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Thursday, May 3, 2012
With the prospect of excessive traffic from the Front Streep Bridge revamp looming, the issue of getting a guardrail installed along Hubbard Avenue in Middletown to protect walking students is at the forefront again. The issue became a heated one after Hurricane Irene caused sinkholes to erupt along the road where the Swimming River Reservoir runs underneath it. There is a chain-link fence along one side of the road; but, it is bent and in a bit of disrepair. For that reason, and the fact that they want something sturdy there to shield walkers, parents of River Plaza Elementary School children again asked Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore when or if they could expect to see the guardrail they want. Ettore, at the Hubbards Bridge …
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Some residents fear severe traffic and safety implications with the new construction.
Following a meeting in Red Bank where the public provided little opposition, the prospect of a brand new, stable and aesthetically pleasing Hubbards Bridge is no consolation for residents on the other side, in Middletown, who think they’re getting the raw end of the traffic and safety deal with the $15.5 million federally funded project. As Monmouth County Engineer Joseph Ettore explained the particulars of the near decade-in-the-making project at the River Plaza Elementary School last night, residents who live in the area grumbled, groaned and called it a gyp for Middletown and boon for Red Bank. Their fear: that what is an already clogged Hubbard Avenue traffic artery will become gridlocked when people traveling from the Garden State …
Thursday, April 19, 2012
During a public presentation Wednesday night, county officials discussed a plan to replace the Front Street bridge that connects Red Bank to Middletown.
Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore promises it will be worth it, just as long as residents can stomach an estimated four months of detours. At a public presentation in Red Bank Wednesday night, Ettore outlined the county's plan to replace the Front Street bridge connecting the borough and Middletown, as well as the impact of closing down a main thoroughfare that sees an estimated 17,500 vehicles cross it each day. The $12.5 million project - funded entirely with federal money - has been years in the making, however, as officials have looked towards replacing the current causeway which was never intended to be permanent. Despite the potential traffic problems, when the new bridge is complete, Ettore believes it will be something both towns…
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Some of the top stories from throughout the Two River area from Feb. 18 to Feb. 24.
Middletown Swim Club Closed for 2012 Season Via Middletown Patch Though officials have promised to do everything they can to delay the sale of the Middletown Swim and Tennis Club, township committee went ahead and introduced an ordinance early this week authorizing the sale of the township-owned club “just in case.” With the club operating at a significant financial loss each year, officials have looked for ways to keep it open but without much success. Public pressure has not proven enough to push Middletown to open up the coffers, either. Though residents have devised business and recruitment plans to keep the club open, it has not been enough to convince the committee, which has promised that the club will not open this year at least. …
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The $12 million project is expected to take between 18 and 24 months once it begins.
The new Front Street bridge project will include pedestrian walkways, wide shoulders, public access to the river, and at minimum four months of driving headaches for those already all too familiar with the regular frustration caused by the Red Bank and Middletown connector. Design plans and details for the long-awaited proposed Front Street bridge replacement project were outlined before the Red Bank Council Wednesday night by Monmouth County Engineer Joe Ettore. The plan, one that’s nearly a decade in the making, has gone through multiple redesigns before officials arrived at the current one, which they promise will impact residents the least. According to Ettore, the $12 million project is slated to begin early in 2013. The …
Jennifer Woods
9:33 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Why not make it easy for the idiots. Put a sign on the Middletown side that is the same height at the train bridge. Have it read - if you hit this sign, you will hit the bridge. more ›