TRENTON: Bridge’s future is up to Commissioner Martin

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   The state Review Board of Historic Sites’ rejection last week of Mercer County’s plan for a road realignment for a new bridge over Jacobs Creek was greeted with delight by longstanding opponents of the county plan.
   The new bridge would replace a span removed by the county after Hurricane Irene. The county said the hurricane had damaged the bridge to the point where its removal was necessary due to safety concerns. The dismantled bridge, now in storage, was erected in the 1880s.
   The Review Board is part of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
   Larry Hanja, spokesmen for the DEP, said Tuesday that the board’s rejection of the county plan puts the proposal into the lap of DEP Commissioner Robert Martin, a resident of the Elm Ridge area of Hopewell Township.
   . “The commissioner has 120 days from the date of the board’s action (Feb. 19) to approve, reject or modify the county plan for the bridge,” Mr. Hanja said.
   Opponents of the county plan have said it not only has an unacceptable impact on a historic area, but is unsafe as well. During the Revolutionary War, historians say Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army forded Jacobs Creek on the way to the Battle of Trenton. The fording, they say, took place near the spot near where the now-removed bridge would be built a little over 100 years later.
   The Review Board “made a wise decision,” said Roni Katz, a leading opponent of the county plan.
   ”Although we have lost the Jacobs Creek bridge at its crossing site, the council voted to protect the landscape by retaining the historical alignment of the intersection, and in doing so, put the safety of travelers first.
   ”We all want the bridge open as soon as possible, and are looking forward to Commissioner Martin’s approving the decision of the Review Board, and the reopening of the roadway,” she said.
   HOWEVER, BRIAN HUGHES, Mercer County executive, said Tuesday that, while he was glad the Review Board agreed “with the county’s plan to construct a new, safe bridge that meets federal safety standards,” he is maintaining his position that the road realignment called for in the current county plan is needed in order “to move the existing, heavy volume of traffic safely along Bear Tavern Road . . . We are optimistic that the commissioner will take traffic engineering and safety into consideration when he makes his final determination for this project.”
   Mr. Hughes said he felt the state panel had unreasonably overstepped its bounds. The panel “through its determination (on the road realignment) went far beyond its purview by rejecting engineering standards. They are not engineers, nor do they have expertise in design standards.”
   Thus, it is on the realignment of the road, and not on the location of the proposed new bridge itself, that Mr. Hughes and the Review Board differ.
   The removed bridge crossed Jacobs Creek on Bear Tavern Road, just north of its intersection with Jacobs Creek Road, in southwestern Hopewell Township. Prior to its removal, the bridge had been closed since September 2009. The span had a 3-ton weight limit when it was closed by the county, which cited safety concerns as the reason for closing the bridge.
   The county plan rejected by the state Review Board called for eliminating a T-intersection on the southerly side of the bridge and replacing it with a curved roadway.