Troubled bridge linking two Shore towns closes until Memorial Day

The troubled Townsends Inlet Bridge linking Avalon and Sea Isle City closed Monday for an $8.56 million work project that could last almost until Memorial Day.

The work to replace seven spans on the 80-year-old New Jersey Shore bridge came out of an inspection that closed the bridge for three months in 2017 and resulted in $1 million in emergency repairs.

The bridge was closed again in April to repair damaged rails.

The project will replace 245 feet of the 1,373-foot-long bridge on the Avalon side of the connector.

The work is expected to wrap up around May 22, five days before Memorial Day, officials said.

Ocean Drive in Avalon will be closed from the southern end of the seawall near Fourth Avenue to the bridge to establish a staging area for equipment and materials.

Cape May County wants to replace the bridge, but the estimated $155 million price tag is considered an obstacle.

In addition, the bridge is eligible for listing on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places as an example of a Depression-era New Deal program project and as a representative of the most common drawbridge type in the Jersey Shore region. The designation would require any reconstruction to maintain historical accuracy.