Routes 35 & 37 Barrier Island Detours to Stretch Into 2014

Traffic patterns at the entrances to Ortley Beach, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park will continue to be detoured well into 2014, state officials said.

Currently, traffic towards Seaside Heights, Ortley Beach and points north is detoured through Seaside Park via the state highway's southbound lanes. When that detour was announced, state transportation officials said they it last approximately four months, until about mid-January.

The project is on schedule, but once lanes are paved and some of the currently-detoured roadways are able to reopen, work will begin on other overpasses and roadways and new detours will be announced.

"The current traffic pattern that is in place (since September) is necessary to complete the first stage of the interchange work," said state Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Greeley. "We remain on schedule to have that work complete sometime in early 2014."

The traffic patterns will then be switched to accommodate the next stage of work there, Greeley said. The specifics of the future detours will be announced then.

"Roadway and ramp closures will continue to be necessary around the interchange through next spring to accommodate the contractor as it rebuilds this stretch of the highway and installs new drainage systems underneath the road," he continued.

The goal is to have the entire interchange opened back up sometime in the spring, in time for summer traffic.

The Route 35 project as a whole is continuing to progress, as blacktop is now being laid in Ortley Beach along the highway's southbound lanes. Southbound traffic is currently being detoured to the one of the northbound lanes at Sixth Avenue in Ortley Beach. Utility work continues on a daily basis even in the northbound lanes and throughout Lavallette, as well as in Mantoloking.

Work will be halted before Memorial Day weekend but will continue after Labor Day next fall.