Bay Boulevard Realignment, Drainage Improvements Move Forward at Seaside Heights Entrance

Bay Boulevard at the entrance to Seaside Heights, April 2014. (Photo: Shorebeat)

A plan to improvement both drainage and traffic flow on Bay Boulevard, which also serves as the entrance to Seaside Heights, is moving forward, officials said.

The borough council on Wednesday awarded a contract for the improvements to Earle Asphalt Company to perform the work, which will be funded by a trio of county, state and local sources. While the project’s primary aim was to improve drainage and resurface the roadway, officials sought to correct what some see as a confusing alignment of the entrance to town near the municipal parking lot.

“If you go down Webster [Avenue], coming westbound, and you hit Bay Boulevard, you have to make a strange turn into oncoming traffic,” said Borough Administrator Christopher Vaz. “If you’re coming around off the bridge, that also becomes a little weird because you can make the full turn or make a curve.”

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The roadway will be realigned so from Webster, motorists will be able to go straight into the municipal parking lot instead of having to go around a bend and loop back around. The borough has heavily promoted its large municipal lot on the bayside as a calmer alternative to parking closer to the ocean.

Bay Boulevard at the entrance to Seaside Heights, April 2014. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Bay Boulevard at the entrance to Seaside Heights, April 2014. (Photo: Shorebeat)

“The project is mostly focused on drainage and resurfacing, but some of those areas will be readjusted as part of the process,” Vaz said.

The roadway will be improved and repaved between Grant and Porter avenues.

The borough council awarded  $977,713 contract to Earle to complete the project, as designed by Van Cleef Engineering. The county will fund $350,000 since Bay Boulevard is a county road, while the state Department of Transportation will contribute $391,585. The remainder will be funded through the borough’s capital improvement budget.