New Carter Road Bridge in Lawrence Now Open

The new bridge on Carter Road in Lawrence opened Monday, Jan. 23.

The Mercer County Department of Transportation has completed the replacement of the Carter Road bridge over Shipetaukin Creek in Lawrence Township.

The bridge is located between Route 206 and Van Kirk Road, Lawrence Township. Work on the bridge replacement
began in mid-April 2016, with completion targeted for early September, before the start of a new school year.

The state’s shutdown order, which was issued because Gov. Chris
Christie, took effect July 9 and resulted in the stoppage of four Mercer County projects, including the Carter Road bridge.

Work resumed on Oct. 17 after Gov. Christie signed a bill to raise the gas tax 23 cents and fund the state’s transportation fund.

The State project to repair the two Route 206 bridges, located just north of Carter Road, was pushed back to spring of 2017 after the shutdown order delayed the Carter Road bridge completion.

“We fast-tracked the Carter Road bridge work so that motorists would not be inconvenienced by simultaneous projects in the area,” Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said. “We also reduced the duration of that project from 150 days to 135, not knowing we’d later be forced to stop work for more than three months. I’m just glad that residents and commuters are now able to use the bridge again.”

The previous bridge structure on Carter Road over Shipetaukin Creek was a single-span, reinforced arch bridge supported on spread footings. The bridge was in poor condition due to the superstructure and substructure defects that resulted in the bridge being categorized as structurally deficient with a sufficiency rating of 49.2 on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being the best and 0 being the worst.

The new bridge over Shipetaukin Creek is a single-span structure supported on full height abutments. The structure supports two 12-foot-wide travel lanes, two 7-foot-wide shoulders and sidewalk along the west side. Cast-in-place concrete approach slabs were constructed on both approaches to the bridge.

Marbro Inc. of Montclair was the successful low bidder at $2,017,117. The contract was awarded on April 14, 2016, and was funded through the New Jersey Department of Transportation Division of Local Aid funds.