Perth Amboy evening news., 1913-12-10

ROAD INF PROVED
Bridge Over Cheesequake
Creek at Morgan, Built Of
Steel and Concrete, Can Be
Operated in Is Seconds.
ROADWAY WAS REBUILT
The Structure Cost the County
S43,25O and Required More
Than Two Years to Com
plete-InspeCtion Made.
ROADWAY WAS REBUILT

plete-InspeCtion Made.
Such a revolution in the condition
of the roadway between South Am
boy and Laurence Harbor on the
Amboy-Keyport turnpike has been
wrought within the past six months,
that a tourist travelling the road at
that time and today would hardly
recognize it as the same route. At
Morgan over the Cheesequake creek
he would now find modern bridge
OF steel and concrete, whose draw
can open in fifteen seconds for water
traffic, which in the estimation of
County Engineer Alvin B. Fox Is
zone of the best and swiftest oper-
ating bridges of its kind" The tour
ist would also find a rebuilt road
way from the city limits of South
Amboy past the bridge, almost ex-
tending to Laurence Harbor. The
Board of Freeholders' contractor
turned the bridge over to the county
last month, since which time it has
been in use continuously and salts
factorily.
Cost S43,25O.
Though the structure cost the
county $43,250, and required over
two years to complete, the county
officials consider that a good job has
been given them. The bridge was
built by the Owega Bridge Com
pany, of New York, and delays are
said to have been caused by strikes,
the inability to get the quality of
steel desired, etc.
Inspected Yesterday.
The structure, which was inspect
ed by County Engineer Fox and a
NEWS man yesterday afternoon, is
174 feet long with nearly twenty
nine foot clear roadway and a four
foot walk on the upstream side.
The steel structure, which rests on
/ concrete abutments and piers, is
composed of four parts; two steel
girders extending from either creek
bank abutment to the piers in mid
stream, and double leaf rolling
loft. The latter consists of Two
steel sections, when closed forming
an arch underneath, which open up
ward from their ends. The techni-
cal name of the structure is the
Scherzer double leaf, rolling loft
bridge, being the only one that
opens perpendicularly in two parts
J In the county. The bridge is heav-
I lily double planked. On top of the
underlying beams is layer of dag
onally laid, three inch yellow pine.
surfaced with layer of two inch
spruce planking, which forms the
roadway. Either end of the bridge
rests ON massive concrete abutments
sunk in either bank Of the creek.
In mid stream there are two con-
crete piers on which rests the ends
OF the draw sections of the struc-
ture. The piers are fifty feet apart,
| giving that much clearance for the
creeks craft in the channel.
New Type Of Bridge.
The bridge is of new type in the
county, the first time that the
! Scherzer double leaf rolling loft
has been used, and in every way it
outclasses the old steel structure
that 1t replaced, and even has sup
erior merits to the single leaf draw
of the New York & Long Branch
Railroad near the structure over the
same creek. The old bridge was
operated by the slowness of manual
labor, while the present is operated
in fifteen seconds with electricity.
IL required several minutes to open
the draw in former days. The draw
is now opened even more quickly
than the bridge of the railroad, as
there are two sections that rise
simultaneously instead of one as at
the railroad structure some 100
yards distant If the craft to pass
is mall, only one section of the draw
need be opened, economiZing in the
use of power and time. The new
bridge is five feet above the height
of the old. and boats may pass under
without raising the draw at all
The electrical controller box, which
/ is now located at one end of the
bridge, will be placed in the bridge
tenders shanty that will be erected
Immediately on the bay side of the
structure. The shanty will extend
several feet out over the stream, so
i that the structure will not interfere
with the traffic on the bridge.
The ends of the leaves or two
sections of the draw that rest on the
concrete piers in mid stream, are
1 curved, so that each may be raised
! ninety degrees If necessary. Under
the rear of each section are massive
concrete boulders suspending from
same, called counter balancers which
equalize the weight of the parts of
the steel sections that extend over
the channel of the creek, necessitat-
ii ing but little power to raise and
lower the sections.
| Macadam Roadway.
There is an approach on either
side of the bridge of about 500
| feet of water bound macadam road,
| built by Conrad Sebolt. This road
way has a substratum of rip tack"
or rough stones, and its banks are
| so arranged with ledges of stone
| that rains will have little effect in
causing wash-outs. In raising the
| CONTINUED on page 10.)
| Eexton has Automobiles for hire.
1865 -10-2S-tfs