Ravine Drive Repairs Set to Begin Today

Work on Ravine Drive will begin today, according to a release from county officials.

A section of Ravine Drive was washed away during Hurricane Irene by rising water in Lake Lefferts that , causing the road to be closed indefinitely between Wykoff Street and Matawan Avenue.

“Our in-house engineers already met with Dam Safety officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection and contractors in the field to review the scope of the work,” County Engineer Joseph Ettore said.

A Matawan fire official said they were told the project should be completed in approximately six weeks, if everything goes as planned.

Matawan wasn't the only Monmouth County municipality hit hard by the hurricane. According to the release, the 9 to 12 inches of rainfall that poured down over the weekend caused two earthern dams to fail and caused county officials to close five bridges.

Detours will be necessary until those repairs can be made, which may lead to travel delays and traffic.

“Even though these closures will cause an inconvenience, residents should be pleased to learn that the county’s Department of Public Works and Engineering was well-prepared for the storm and have since committed the necessary resources to minimize the impact on us all.”

As a precaution, all of the county’s engineers were reassigned to inspect each of the 980 bridges. The county reports that 34 of the most crucial structures were to be inspected by the end of yesterday, demonstrating their commitment to timely completion of these projects. 

Personnel in several other divisions were reassigned to assist with those inspections. They will be working 12-hour shifts for the remainder of this week to get the work done.

“Fortunately, the designs for many of these bridges have already been completed in anticipation of replacing them, so we are that much closer to getting the work done,” said John Tobia, director of the county’s Department of Public Works and Engineering. “For the others, our in-house engineers will be working into the night to develop designs to advance these projects.”

The earthen dams that failed and subsequent road closures are:

• Hubbard Avenue at Shadow Lake in Middletown;
• Ravine Drive at Lake Lefferts in Matawan.

The six bridges and roads that will be closed indefinitely include:

• Jackson Mills Road over the Manasquan River in Freehold Township;
• Allentown-Crosswicks Road over Doctor’s Creek in Upper Freehold Township;
• Southard Avenue over the Manasquan River in Howell;
• Swimming River Road over the Swimming River in Tinton Falls, and
• Lake Drive over Takanassee Lake in Ocean Township.
• Holland Road over Mahoras Creek in Middletown Township