North Bay, Church Road Upgrade Moves Forward

Road improvements that will lead to a new entrance to Ocean County College and improved access to the Garden State Parkway in Toms River may be approved Wednesday by the county’s freeholders.

County Engineer Frank Scarantino said Church Road will be widened at North Bay Avenue as the first phase of an upgrade of roads in that area that will connect the college with North Bay Avenue. The widening of the road is expected to cost $75,000, he told the freeholders. He also detailed the road, parking lot, and drainage work underway on the OCC campus as part of construction of the $30 million Gateway Building, a joint venture with Kean University.

The freeholders are scheduled to authorize advertising for the Church Road improvements when they meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday in room 119 of the county Administration Building at 101 Hooper Avenue.

That is when they are also scheduled to award a $252,769 contract to Solar-Mite Electrical Contractors of Fords for a new traffic signal at Old Freehold Road and Intermediate Way North. That intersection will be improved as part of that project, Scarantino said.

In connection with that work, the freeholders are slated to give the go ahead to acquire the right of way for a proposed intersection and traffic signal at Indian Head Road, Intermediate Way North, and a connector road to the northbound Garden State Parkway at Interchange 83.

At the same session the freeholders are expected to introduce a $2 million bond ordinance to pay for the replacement of the Jamaica Blvd. bridge in Berkeley Township and one on Brook Road in Lakewood.

Set for a public hearing is a plan to refinance $35 million in county debt to take advantage of lower interest rates, a move Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. said will save taxpayers about $1 million in interest.

New bids will be sought for fenders on the Mantoloking Bridge to replace those that have been damaged with a new fender system, Scarantino said. Earlier bids were double the estimated cost of the work and were rejected.

Bids will also be sought for the construction of the fourth section of the rail trail from Barnegat to Beachwood along the old Central Railroad of New Jersey right of way. That section of the trail from Railroad Avenue to the Oyster Creek in Ocean Township is expected to cost $440,000 to improve.

On Thursday the ribbon will be cut on the northern-most part of the completed trail at Serpentine Drive in Berkeley Township, according to Freeholder James F. Lacey.