The Mercer County Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will start the replacement of the bridge carrying an abandoned railroad trail over Parkside Avenue in Trenton on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. It is one of 17 County bridge projects in progress, including those in the design stage, according to County Executive Brian M. Hughes.

Officially known as Bridge #180.1, the structure is located between Oak Lane and Oakland Street. This project is to be completed in 150 calendar days, weather permitting.

During construction, Parkside Avenue between Oak Lane and Oakland Street will be closed to vehicular traffic on a 24/7 basis. Pedestrians will be provided a safe passage through the site during construction. A detour will be posted directing motorists to West State Street to Sullivan Way to Lower Ferry Road and Parkway Avenue, ending on Parkside Avenue.

The existing bridge carrying an abandoned railroad trail over Parkside Avenue is a concrete-encased steel girder bridge. The structure is in poor condition, extremely deteriorated and poses a hazard due to the potential of falling concrete debris.

The replacement bridge will be a single-span structure supported on full-height concrete abutments. The superstructure will consist of precast pre-stressed beams with a composite reinforced concrete deck. The substructure will be full-height reinforced concrete abutments founded on cast-in-place spread footings. The proposed structure was designed to identically match the aesthetics of the existing structure while being upgraded to meet current New Jersey Department of Transportation standards.

The successful bidder for the project was Rencor Inc. of Somerville, which submitted a bid price of $1,885,277. Rencor Inc. has successfully completed similar projects in Mercer County and provided the lowest bid price for this project. The contract was approved by the Mercer County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 7.