By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Corsons Inlet Bridge has a serious case of pothole-itis.
A Swiss cheese-like array of potholes has pockmarked the bridge’s concrete deck, forcing drivers to carefully navigate their way across the 76-year-old span that connects the shore towns of Ocean City and Strathmere.
However, the Cape May County Board of Commissioners awarded a $151,841 construction contract on Tuesday to repair the bridge’s decking, safety walk and curbs.
Motorists, though, will have to endure lane restrictions that will be in place to accommodate the construction project.
Karen Coughlin, executive director of the Cape May County Bridge Commission, said the project should be substantially completed and both lanes reopened to traffic by May 25, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend kickoff of the summer tourism season at the shore.
Since 1946, the Corsons Inlet Bridge has served as a vital link along the Ocean Drive between Ocean City, Strathmere and Sea Isle City. Corsons Inlet is one of five toll bridges operated by the Cape May County Bridge Commission along the scenic Ocean Drive that connects the Cape May County shore communities.
The four other spans include the Ocean City-Longport Bridge, Townsends Inlet Bridge, Middle Thorofare Bridge and Grassy Sound Bridge.
The bridge commission raised tolls on all five bridges in March by 50 cents, from $1.50 to $2, as part of a three-stage fare hike through 2024. Tolls will also go up by 50 cents in 2023 and 50 cents in 2024. By the time the fare increase is fully enacted in 2024, the toll will be $3.
The toll increase is designed to raise additional revenue that the bridge commission can use for repairs and maintenance projects on all five bridges. All but the modern Ocean City-Longport Bridge are aging spans that were built in the 1930s or 1940s.
Pothole patching will be among a series of improvements planned this year for the Corsons Inlet Bridge. Lewis Donofrio, the bridge commission’s chief engineer, described the concrete deck as “pretty beat up” while giving a report on the span during a meeting in January.
As winter transitions into spring, the bridge deck goes through freeze-thaw cycles that create potholes.
Donofrio explained that potholes also form when road salt used during snowstorms seeps into the concrete decking and causes the bridge’s reinforcing steel to corrode. Pressure is then created on the concrete, forcing it to pop out and form potholes.
Donofrio said Corsons Inlet is “our No. 1 project on the list” of bridge repairs and upgrades that will be done by the commission in 2022.
After the summer, the commission plans to undertake a more extensive rehabilitation of the Corsons Inlet Bridge estimated at between $3 million and $4 million. A construction contract still must be awarded for the project.
The main part of the rehabilitation project will be a new contract to fix the support system that holds up the drawbridge – or bascule section – of the span.
The drawbridge has not been lifted in the upright position since 2013, Donofrio said. Repairs to the support system will finally allow the bridge to be raised to allow boats to pass underneath.
Donofrio, though, noted that even when the commission was operating the drawbridge prior to 2013 there wasn’t a lot of demand from boaters for the structure to be lifted. He pointed out that sediment buildup in Corsons Inlet near the bridge makes it difficult for boats to travel in the same area.
Corsons Inlet separates Ocean City and Strathmere and leads from the ocean through the barrier islands off the northeast coast of Cape May County.
