Route 601 to Close for Bridge Repairs on April 15

Somerset County plans to close Belle Mead-Blawenburg Road (CR 601) for 14 days beginning on April 15 in order to replace of County Bridge No. D0303 over Back Brook. The traffic count over this bridge in 2019 was 9,670 vehicles per day.

Bridge over Back Brook on Route 601

The Belle Mead-Blawenburg Road (CR 601) Bridge, located approximately 500 fee north of the intersection of Grandview Road and 0.8 mile south of West Dutchtown Harlingen Road (CR 604), is scheduled to be fully closed to vehicular and pedestrian/bicycle traffic during construction, starting in April 15 for 14 days — then alternating one-lane/two-way traffic following the installation of the new bridge, for completion of the work. 

The project location map can be viewed here. A detour route will be posted along Belle Mead-Blawenburg Road (CR 601), Route 206, and Georgetown-Franklin Turnpike (CR 518).  Local access will still be maintained.  The detour plan is as follows:

• Full Road Closure starting on or about Wednesday, April 15 and reopen on Wednesday, April 29 for the 14-day full closure.  Detour route will be posted per the Detour Plan.

• The contractor will use one-lane/two-way alternating traffic during off-peak weekdays (9AM - 4PM) with the assistance of Montgomery Police traffic directors, for approximately 2 weeks, to complete the remaining work on the new bridge.

Project Description

This project’s construction contract was awarded to Assuncao Brothers, Inc. on June 25, 2019, for approxiamately $840,000.

County Bridge No. D0303 carries Belle Mead-Blawenburg Road (CR 601) over Back Brook in Montgomery. The 13-foot single-span structure, with unknown construction date, is located on a tangent section of Belle Mead-Blawenburg Road between Grandview Road to the south and Dutchtown-Zion Road to the north. The bridge's 26.7' clear roadway width accommodates a single lane of traffic in each direction. The existing structure consists of simply supported rolled steel beams with reinforced concrete deck slab supported on masonry abutments. The masonry abutments are flanked by cast-in-place concrete wingwalls. The deck slab is overlaid with approximately 12 inches of bituminous pavement. The 1st cycle of the Bridge Evaluation Survey Report, dated 6/24/2014, rated the overall condition of the structure as poor due to both the superstructure and the substructure. The superstructure is in poor condition due to the stringers typically exhibit moderate rust with heavy laminar rust and section loss adjacent to the abutments. The substructure is in poor condition due to the missing pointing and numerous small voids throughout both breastwalls. The southwest wingwall is spalled and fractured at the southern half.

The structure is classified as Structural Deficient and also Functionally Obsolete. The proposed structure for Bridge D0303 will consist of a precast concrete three-sided rigid frame supported on precast concrete footings, and with precast concrete wingwalls. Concrete parapets and wingwall faces will have stone veneer.  The roadway width will be increased to 36' curb-to-curb through the bridge limits, to be consistent with previous bridge replacements along CR 601 north and south of the project site, and then taper back to meet existing conditions. The proposed bridge replacement will remove the bridge from both the structurally deficient and functionally obsolete lists.

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection permit restricts work around the stream from May 1 to July 31.

This project is funded by NJDOT.