County to rebuild bride and dam on Main Street; relocate Old Mill businesses.
Cara Latham, Staff Writer
Editor’s Note: The following is the first of two parts studying the Allentown bridge repair project and its impact on the community. Next week we will present the effects the project could have on businesses as well as the borough’s official stance.
Cara LathamStaff Writer
ALLENTOWN Monmouth County officials say it is very likely that the Main Street bridge will be closed for reconstruction for 18 months, beginning in January.
The county has already gone out to bid for the bridge and dam replacement project, which it has been planning for a decade, and expects to receive bids in mid-October, said County Engineer Joseph Ettore.
The county had planned to close and repair the bridge in 2006 and then again earlier this year, he said, but officials were unable to get the final approval from state agencies, including the state Historic Preservation Office. However, a separate state office, the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control, has directed the county to move forward with the project as long as the received bids are reasonable, he said.
Mr. Ettore said the contract calls for an 18-month closure of the bridge, with the possibility it could take up to 22 months. However, the county, Mr. Ettore said, is doing everything it can to keep that duration as short as possible. It is providing a monetary incentive of up to $100,000 to the contractors for early completion.
The closure will have a tangible effect on businesses located in the Old Mill, which will be forced to relocate for the duration.
The problem with the bridge and dam is that the dam itself has deteriorated to the point where it is no longer feasible to maintain it, and even temporary improvements will still not bring it up to date with state requirements, he said.
There has been deterioration of the concrete deck and steal beams that support the dam, and the spillway, the structure that controls the flow of the water over the dam does not meet rainfall intensity requirements and needs to be upgraded, Mr. Ettore said.
Those factors were the primary reason the Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control directed the county to temporarily lower the water level in the lake, which the county did last October. But, the bureau told the county it has to proceed with full bridge and dam replacement, to bring the bridge back up to DEP standards, he added.
”The county is the owner, and the dam is classified as a high-hazard dam,” John Moyle, the bureau chief of the Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control, said Tuesday. He explained that “if that dam should fail, there is a potential for loss of life downstream.”
He said that the state has been working with the county since the mid-1980s to bring the dam into compliance with state regulations, and that in 2004, the bureau issued a permit to the county to make the repairs.
”They couldn’t just continue to repair it,” he said. “The only solution was to go with this new bridge and new spillway (a crucial aspect of the dam).”
He said the bureau, in ordering the county to reconstruct the bridge and dam, referred the matter to the attorney general’s office to get the county to comply. That office has the power to issue administrative penalties up to $25,000 a day, but the state has not taken the county to court because it has given the bureau a scheduled start time.
Mr. Ettore said the county doesn’t release the cost of the project prior to receiving the bids, but he did say the project is estimated to cost around $5 million.
Once bids are received, the county will present the results to the bureau, which will review the bids along with the county “to make a determination as to whether or not we’re going to be directed to proceed, or if they’re going to allow us to rebid the project,” Mr. Ettore said. While not finalized, “we would anticipate by the middle to end of January, we might be in a position to close the bridge if the bids are favorable and if we move to make the award,” he added.
The county has not received any fines regarding the bridge, Mr. Ettore said, and the county is doing everything possible to make sure it doesn’t receive any in the future, he said.
And “we spent the last few years working with the borough and state Historic Preservation office to ensure that the bridge that will be constructed at this location is consistent with the historic character of Allentown,” he said.
Borough Mayor Stu Fierstein, however, said last week there was a lack of communication on the county’s part, and officials here feel that Allentown has been left in the dark with regard to progress on the project. The county, he said, had not met with the borough since January 2006, and had recently canceled a meeting scheduled for Sept. 11. Despite borough officials’ repeated efforts to set up a meeting, “nothing has been discussed with us as a governing body,” he said.
The borough, therefore, cannot yet plan for what has to take place until it knows for certain what to expect from the county, he said. If a meeting with the borough is not held by the end of this month, he said he is taking the matter to the county Board of Chosen Freeholders to try to get answers.
Once the bridge is closed, there will be a posted detour that will direct traffic through High Street down Route 539 to Sharon Station Road and back up to Waker Avenue, about two blocks from the bridge, Mr. Ettore said. However, the road will be open to local traffic on the High Street side up until Pete Sensi Park to provide local access to vehicles, and Main Street will remain open up until the Old Mill building.
”Throughout the bridge reconstruction phase, there will always be access so that you could park your vehicle on Main Street and still access businesses on both sides of the bridge by walking to them, if you choose not to use the signs for vehicular detours,” he said.
The bridge will be demolished in different stages, depending on how the contractor chooses to advance the project, Mr. Ettore said.
There is some work that can take place without the road being closed, but it’s very minimal, Mr. Ettore said, adding that all the surveying and engineering work has already been completed. Construction is able to be done throughout the winter.
Construction materials will be stored at Pete Sensi Park in accordance with state Green Acres rules, he said. Those rules require that the county use the area but must restore it and enhance it as part of the bridge reconstruction project. That, he said, has already been worked out and approved the DEP as part of the permitting process.
And “all of the contractors’ parking will be limited to the construction site itself with respect to the parking for local businesses,” he added.
Local concerns
According to Mr. Ettore, the county must ensure local concerns are addressed, and that there are means put into place to deal with emergency services, rerouting of school buses, mutual aid agreements and other plans that must be made before the bridge closes.
Allentown officials have raised concerns about routing for emergency services and the impact increased vehicular traffic on Breza Road would have on the actual roadway, and Mr. Ettore said that the county has included a number of measures in its contract for the project that deals with some of those concerns specifically with regard to Breza Road.
Mr. Ettore said the county will be responsible for topping the existing portion of Breza Road that’s not currently paved, and the contractor will be responsible for maintaining the road, he added.
”We included provisions in that contract to make sure Breza Road is passable at all times during the bridge reconstruction,” he said.
One of the biggest effects of the bridge project, however, will be that the Old Mill be vacated during the construction.
”Due to the sensitivity of the historic building itself as well as the proximity of the building to the bridge work,” the recommendation was made to vacate the building, he said.
Mr. Ettore said the county is involved in assisting both the landlord, Corky Danch, and the tenants through the process of vacating the building, which will most likely include assistance with relocating to another facility,” he said. Mr. Ettore said those negotiations are still taking place, and he could not say whether that location would be in Allentown or nearby.
”The county is very concerned with providing all the assistance we can,” he said. “We’ll do whatever we can to minimize those impacts” to business owner during construction, he said.
Keith Warner, one of the owners of the Black Forest Restaurant, said Tuesday that he was worried. He said the restaurant has been located at the Old Mill for over 22 years, and people wouldn’t know where to go if they relocated.
”It could end our business if they have to shut the mill down,” he said. “It’s more complicated than that (just relocating). We’ve been here. People know we’re here. We have a lot of people who come from far away. They would pull into the town and go, ‘Where’s the restaurant?’”
Karen Deets, owner of Off the Wall Craft Gallery, who has operated her business at the mill for over 30 years, said vacating the mill would have a big impact because the mill has always kind of been the hub of the district. She said she doesn’t know yet where she will relocate, but said that doing so is very expensive because of the costs it takes to get carpentry, electricity, signage, and everything that comes along with a new building.
”Any figures (the county) mentioned to me so far I don’t feel is probably going to be adequate,” she said referring to the assistance the county has mentioned it would be provided so far.
”It’s going to be hard to re-create what I have here because the setting is so beautiful,” she said.
Nonetheless, she said, she’s looking forward to new beginnings.
”I’m looking forward to new customers and everything being nice and new,” she said.
As soon as the county receives the bids and knows whether the project is definite, Mr. Ettore said, the county will meet with the school district, emergency services, the borough, Upper Freehold, and the business owners to help plan for the bridge closure, he said. This will include a detailed project schedule and the milestones for the project for example, the best date for the actual closure of the bridge he said.
”While we certainly do recognize they would have liked to have been provided more notice, we find ourselves as disappointed we were not given an earlier opportunity to move this project forward in 2006 and 2007,” he said.

