BY SHERRY CONOHAN
Staff Writer
SEA BRIGHT — In an update on the state’s plans to build a new bridge connecting Sea Bright to Highlands, Sea Bright Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka-Adams reported the start date now is February 2007. She said the cost is expected to be $82.9 million, which will be totally federally funded.
“They have already gotten their federal funding and they are very excited,” she reported at the last Borough Council meeting of her recent meeting with state Department of Transportation (DOT) officials. “While a lot of plans are being put on hold, they’re moving ahead with this because of Sandy Hook.”
Residents will get an opportunity to hear the latest on the plans for the bridge at a meeting with the public that the DOT will hold sometime around October, Kalaka-Adams said. She said the DOT is going to let Sea Bright and Highlands have a say in how the bridge looks. It’s now in the design stage, for which $4.5 million has been allocated, she added.
Kalaka-Adams said, however, there will be no water pipe running under the bridge, as the borough had hoped so as to alleviate water-pressure problems in the North Beach section of town, but a cell tower may be built over it.

