Orchard Road Bridge Now Open

The Orchard Road Bridge, complete with fieldstone walls and a sidewalk, opened for traffic as of 3:35 pm on Wednesday, December 11.

The bridge, over a Beden Brook tributary, has been closed since August 26.

Kalogridis Contracting, Inc. of North Brunswick — the low bidder for the project at  $748,118 — completed the project three days ahead of schedule. This project was funded by FY2017 county aid from NJ Department of Transportation.

The Orchard Road Bridge, located approximately 0.2 mile east of the intersection of Opossum Road and 0.5 mile west of Route 206. The road is used by many Montgomery Township school busses and parents in route to the township's public schools.

The overall condition of the old bridge was poor, due to the advanced deterioration of the superstructure. The new bridge is a precast concrete box culvert with cast-in-place concrete wingwalls. The new structure includes a reinforced concrete parapet with fieldstone veneer and bluestone cap on the south side and a stone veneered headwall with beam guide rail on the north side. 

The roadway over the bridge was widened to 28’, to accommodate 12’ travel lanes and 4’ shoulder on the eastbound side, and an extended sidewalk on the south side from the Rock Brook School.