Herald - Lantern Dispatch 19 March '86 5

Great Channel Bridge, Completion Seen by May

By GREGG LAWSON STONE HARBOR - The long, drawn-out rehabilitation of the Great Channel (96th Street) Bridge should be completed by May. according to Bob Hovick. principal engineer with the state Department of Transportation. Currently, the bridge is open to vehicular traffic but there is no railing on the closed pedestrian crossing. Hovick said all construction is complete and the contractor. Raymond International Builders of Houston, Tex., is waiting for four machinery frames for new motors to be delivered from Cornell Inc. of Woodbury. The previous frames, which were 50 years old. were sent to Earle Gear and Machine Co. in Philadelphia to be reworked. They were sent back when cracks and chips were discovered. "They went back three times and we finally decided we were kidding ourselves." Hovick said. "We had to have four newframes designed." Two of the frames should arrive "by the end of March," Hovick said, and the remaining two in "four or five weeks." The installation usually takes about one day, he added. The rail for the

pedestrian crossing will be installed in "close proximity" to the frame work, he said, and the workers "should be out by May." The Stone ^iarbor Chamber of Commerce, alarmed by a "noticeable lack of activity," sent a letter to county freeholders on Feb. 18 expressing its concern. The letter echoed the chamber's civic responsibility committee report, dated Feb. 27. "As the weather begins to improve, traffic over and under the bridge will increase substantially," the report stated. "The absence of the walkway will return the bridge to a hazardous condition for pedestrians dnd work on the motors wul be impeded by the traffic and can cause delays to motor vehicles." Hovick said one lane of traffic may have to be closed during the installation, and that bridge openings won't be affected "When we replace the two (frames) on the west side, we'll raise the east side." Hovick said. "When we replace the two on the east side, we'll raise the west side." Hovick said 95 percent of the electrical system is installed and a few temporary electrical hook-ups will have to be wired in. A county bridge operator is on duty and United

States Coast Guard regulations require eight hours notice from a boat needing a bridge opening in winter, he said. The reconstruction originally was proposed as a 10-month job (eight months of construction; two months leeway for bad weather) to start in the fall of 1983 and finish by the fall of 1984. Stone Harbor interests objected to closing the bridge during the 1984 tourist season and the job was changed to two. sixmonth periods. midOctober to Mid-April 1983-84 and 1984-85. Work has dragged on into 1986, Hovick said, because of the inability to get the frames and motor parts before the original completion date, unforeseen extra work, and Raymond's late starting date. Numerous red tape, including Coast Guard approval. delayed the bid opening to Nov. 3, 1983. The state awarded the contract Dec. 12 and work began Jan. 23, 1984. That left Raymond three months to complete half the work. Still, Hovick said. Raymond will have to pay a penalty for missing the April 19 completion aate. "The contractor (Raymond) bid it knowing that we were going to start late," Hovick said. "Right now we have liquated damages of $2,500 a day for 17 days." Raymond is paid by estimate every month for work completed. The $42,500 will be withheld from the contract total, he said. He did concede, though, that Raymond probably will have to be compensated for unforeseen work. Some of that work came from pressure to maintain the bridge's historic integrity. Hovick said the span is a "rolling beam bridge." one of only two or three left in the country. The original plans called for reworking some of the structured steel which, like the frames, turned out to be too badly damaged. "When the deterioration is worse than the contractor estimates, it becomes a real nightmare," Hovick said. "If it was a new bridge we wouldn't have nad any problem." Extra work forced the cost of the project to jump from $3.5 million to a figure "close to $4 million ". Hovick said. The job will be paid with 80 percent federal and 20 percent state money. That's for a county bridge on a county road. The bridge is the only direct link between Stone Harbor and the mainland and travel to and from the borough was via Avalon or North Wildwood boulevards, a 10-mile detour, until it opened to vehicular traffic in May 1985. Stone Harbor residents and business people complained about long closures during the off-seasons. Lvcal elected officials estimated that at least five businesses either closed or left the borough during those times.

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