Jersey Shore bridge, slated to open before Memorial Day, to remain closed until late summer

Repair work on the Townsend’s Inlet Bridge, originally slated to end around May 22, will extend into late summer.

The Cape May County Engineer’s Office said the delay was due to “several construction challenges including those associated with demolition, underwater salvage operations, and subsurface geotechnical complications.”

The bridge connects Sea Isle City and Avalon, which are on separate barrier islands.

“Based upon the best information available to the county at this time, it is estimated that the Townsend’s Inlet Bridge will not open before late summer,” the office said in a statement.

The office said it would provide an update in about 30 days.

Last week, Sea Isle City officials said county engineers had informed them that the $8.6 million project to replace seven spans on the bridge would not be done by the expected date because of unforeseen conditions that require additional work.

Work on the bridge started in mid-September.

The work to replace seven spans on the 80-year-old 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 last April to repair damaged rails.

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