The Cape May County Bridge Commission is working on a temporary solution to reopen the Middle Thorofare Bridge that connects Cape May to Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach, possibly enabling traffic to return in the coming weeks. A motor failure on Saturday caused the drawbridge to be stuck in an upright position, resulting in an indefinite closure with significant disruptions.
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The county's interim plan will be to install an auxiliary motor to make the bridge operational in the short term while a specialized replacement for the primary motor is custom built.
The bridge commission's executive director, Kevin Lare, said Tuesday the auxiliary motor could be installed within a week, at the soonest, but could take as long as a month.
With the auxiliary motor, Lare said it will take about 10 to 12 minutes instead of two or three minutes to open and close the Middle Thorofare Bridge, also known as the Two Mile Bridge. Replacing the primary drive shaft motor, which opens and closes the drawbridge more efficiently, is expected to take about six months.
The bridge temporarily will remain in the upright position, allowing commercial and recreational vessels to pass through the harbor. For now, it is closed to all vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. Visitors entering and leaving Wildwood Crest can use the George Redding Bridge in Wildwood, the Grassy Sound Bridge in Middle Township and other alternate routes. All businesses on both sides of the Two Mile Bridge bridge remain open.
An estimated 560,000 cars crossed the Middle Thorofare Bridge in 2023, making it a vital transportation link during peak travel months in the summer, Cape May County county officials said. When opened, the bridge also gives boats access to New Jersey's largest commercial fishing port.
Lund's Fisheries, based in Cape May, said Monday the business is grateful the drawbridge will remain in the open position while repairs take place. Electrical engineers performed multiple tests on the bridge Saturday morning before determining it had become "inoperable and irreparable."
“The Port would have lost millions of dollars in landings as we would have been forced to divert our vessels elsewhere," Lund's Fisheries President Wayne Reichle said in an email.
The tolled drawbridge that connects Wildwood Crest to the Garden State Parkway was built in 1939 with a vertical clearance of 23 feet. The county is developing plans for a long-term bridge replacement. The Two Mile Bridge is one of the county's five tolled bridges built around the same time and in need of replacement due to age.
The proposed replacement of the Middle Thorofare Bridge is a fixed span that would have a vertical clearance of 80 feet, preventing the need for frequent drawbridge operations to allow access to vessels. The estimated cost to replace the bridge is between $238 million and $243 million, a sum that could require state and federal funding.