Department of Public Works: Divison of Bridges, 1940-1988

This Bridges record series consists of individual bridge specification records, and separate bridge maintenance records in Monmouth County, on 8 x 15 inch index cards.

There are more than 980 bridges in Monmouth County of the 6,557 bridges in New Jersey. The Monmouth County Department of Public Works & Engineering in the Division of Engineering & Traffic Safety is responsible for the planning, analysis, design, construction and maintenance of all Monmouth County bridges, except as noted below. One of the longest bridges in Monmouth County is bascule Bridge No. S031, also called Oceanic Bridge, 2,712 feet, crossing the Navesink River in the Shrewsbury Sector on Bingham Avenue (CR8A) in Rumson.

Monmouth County bridges on State highways (Rtes. 9, 18, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 70, 71, 79, 138, I-195 and Garden State Parkway) are maintained by the State of New Jersey Department of Transportation and are not included in this record series.

There is a separate specification record for each individual bridge. Record cards are folded and stored in metal cabinets. An index shows the following fields: bridge number; road; route number; locality; bridge sector; waterway; bridge type; superstructure; abutments; span; design; length; clearance height; width between curbs; number and width of walkways; and wheel guards. The Specification record cards hold more information such as bridge surface, bridge condition, depth of water, name of inspector, and last inspection date. Most records contain one or more 4 x 4 inch black-and-white photographs of the bridge. Some bridge records include bridge condition at the time the record was made or updated, and some include the year the bridge was built or rebuilt. Another card logs the maintenance record for each bridge, from 1946-1988.

Abbreviations used in the Superstructure column include:

CIP – cast iron pipe
CMP – corrugated metal pipe
CMPA – corrugated metal pipe arch
ECMP – elliptical corrugated metal pipe
ERCP – elliptical reinforced concrete pipe
RCP – reinforced concrete pipe.

This collection is open to researchers.

Researchers can access the Bridges Collection at the Archives. A computerized searchable database of 1,076 bridge records is available.

Monmouth County uses a four or five digit alphanumeric designation for its bridges (which can sometimes be seen on a sign while traversing the structure). The first and sometimes second digit consists of the first letter or abbreviation of the Bridge Sector, such as H for Holmdel or ML for Marlboro, followed by a three-digit number, as in H002 or ML046.

Bridge records in this collection are arranged by bridge number. The records are housed in three metal Kardex Record storage cabinets, each with 16 slide-out drawers holding 67 record pockets. The series begins with Bridge Record No. A001 and ends with W058.

Monmouth County Archives
125 Symmes Drive
Manalapan, NJ 07726
Phone: 732-308-3771

This collection was transferred to the Monmouth County Archives by Keith Duncan (retired 2013), manager of the Bridge Department of the Monmouth County Division of Engineering on July 14, 2010 (Accession 2010-09).

The Bridges Finding Aid was created by George Joynson on August 2, 2014. The Bridges Index was created by the Bridge Department prior to July 2010 and updated by George Joynson on July 26, 2014.

For more information about bridges in Monmouth County, visit these Monmouth County web pages: Division of Engineering, Monmouth County Routes, and Bridge Hunter. Information on a bridge’s last inspection, condition and sufficiency rating can be found at NJ Dept.of Transportation.

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