Road department installs new drainage grates

The Monmouth County Road Depart­ment recently completed a project to re­place drainage grates to make county roads safer for bicyclists. The department replaced grates along Rt. 520 (Newman Springs Road) in Holmdel, Middletown and Tinton Falls.

The older grates used on storm drainage inlets were made of castings with widely spaced bars running parallel to traffic. Although effective in handling storm-water runoff, the wide spacing of the bars were a problem for cyclists, and had the potential to catch a wheel and misdirect the cyclist.

The newer "bicycle friendly" grates are designed differently and are safer for cyclists to ride across. The department recently completed the first initiative of the pro­ject, which consisted of replacing 115 of the older grates. The nine-mile stretch of road along Rt. 520 runs from Route 34 in Holmdel to Rt. 13 (Shrewsbury Avenue) in Tinton Falls.

The second initiative will be construc­tion of a pedestrian/bicycle pathway along the southerly side of Rt. 520 from Phalanx Road, Middletown, to Middletown Road, Holmdel. The majority of the pathway will be a 10-foot-wide trail, suitable for pedestrian and bicycle use, or, where site conditions do not permit a wider trail, a sidewalk.

The project engineer will be Schoor DePalma Inc. and low bidder for con­struction was A. Montone Construction, Holmdel. The contract was awarded at a freeholders meeting in late October, with work to begin next spring.

Locally, the sidewalks/pathways will be constructed on Rt. 537 (Tinton Avenue), Eatontown; Rts. 537 and 46 (Dutch Lane Road), Freehold Township; Rt. 520, Holmdel and Middletown (including Brookdale Com­munity College and Thompson Park, Lin­croft section of Middletown); Rt. 25 (Norwood Avenue), Long Branch; Rts. 15 and 25, West Long Branch; and Rts. 3 and 6A, Aberdeen.