Get Ready to Wait: Ocean City’s 34th St. Bridge Construction Beginning

If you use the 34th Street bridge to get in or out of Ocean City, you should start allowing for some extra construction delay-time effective immediately.

The entire bridge will be closed in both directions from about 10 p.m. Wednesday night through 5 a.m. Thursday, according to Ocean City Mayor Jay Gillian,

When the bridge reopens on Thursday, traffic will be reduced to a single lane with a traffic light directing vehicles in alternating directions. The single lane will be in place through the first weekend of May 2017.

The bridge will be open to traffic in both directions for the summer. The other half of the project will be completed in the 2017-18 off-season with a similar schedule of single-lane traffic.

The Ocean City webpage gives this overview of the capital improvement on the 34th Street bridge...

A two-year Cape May County project will replace the decking of the bridge (constructed in 1964). Thirteen of 31 spans will be completely replaced, and 18 will undergo "hydro-demolition" to blast away the top three inches of concrete. That will be replaced by a high-performance concrete. The $8 million project on the most heavily traveled Cape May County bridge also will include steel and railing repairs, but it will not include the addition of any new pedestrian or bicycle lanes (something that would double costs and delay necessary repairs, according to the county).