Monmouth County working to open Glimmer Glass Bridge by 4th of July with $100K in repairs

Ken Serrano, Asbury Park Press
Updated ·1 min read

Monmouth County is working to open the Glimmer Glass Bridge by the 4th of July holiday, but it will take $100,000 in repairs to get there, officials say.

The bridge that connects Brielle and Manasquan was closed June 14 by the Monmouth County Division of Bridges after a routine inspection the day before turned up the need for repairs. Inspectors found that the steel stringers that support the deck of the moveable span needed to be fixed, county officials said.

The repair work requires the Manasquan River navigation channel to be shut down from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week, Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone said in a statement. It will be open to boaters 24 hours a day on the weekends and 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays, Arnone said.

Foot, bike and vehicle traffic will be shut down until the repairs are made, he said.

A fishing vessel passes through the open bridge. Monmouth County has been researching how to replace Glimmer Glass Bridge since the mid 1990s. After more than 35 years of trying, it hasn't happened, it could be a while even though there's a proposed replacement plan. Manasquan, NJSaturday, October 23, 2021
A fishing vessel passes through the open bridge. Monmouth County has been researching how to replace Glimmer Glass Bridge since the mid 1990s. After more than 35 years of trying, it hasn't happened, it could be a while even though there's a proposed replacement plan. Manasquan, NJSaturday, October 23, 2021

The bridge is located along Fisk Avenue and Brielle Road. It was built in 1889 and reconstructed in 1950. In 2013, it received a sufficiency rating of 2 out of 100. It then went under emergency repairs and received a sufficiency rating of 10.1 in 2015, according to a prior Press story.

The bridge was listed on New Jersey’s and the National Register of Historic Places since 2008.

Arnone added that despite continuous maintenance of the bridge, it's time to replace it. The replacement is expected to cost about $30 million and take two to three years of design work to satisfy the New Jersey Historical Preservation Office review of the application, he said.

Ken Serrano covers breaking news, crime and investigations. Reach him at 732-643-4029 or kserrano@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Glimmer Glass Bridge to open by July 4: County