Cape May County Engineer Dale Foster doesn’t even pause over the question of which bridges in Cape May County are in the direst need of replacement.
Four of the five bridges along Ocean Drive, a stretch of scenic road connecting the county’s barrier island resorts, he says. The fifth, in the north end of Ocean City, has already been replaced, but the others remain in place. He said the county does what it can to keep the bridges open and in good repair, but they’ve been in use for generations. When it comes time to talk about bridge replacements, that’s where he starts.
The bridges fall under the jurisdiction of the Cape May County Bridge Commission and were built in the late 1930s to early 1940s with a rush of federal infrastructure money under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. After more than 70 years in the harsh salt air, battered by waves and occasionally slammed by boats, the bridges are listed in poor condition. Foster estimates it would cost at least $500 million to replace those bridges, a big bite in a county with a total budget of $146.4 million this year.