Ponquogue Bridge Reopened to Limited Traffic Tuesday, With Weight Limit in Place

The Ponquogue Bridge reopened to limited vehicle traffic this week with new temporary traffic lanes shifted away from areas of concern in the bridge’s framework and greatly reduced maximum vehicle weights.

Suffolk County Department of Public Works crews turned the traffic light on Dune Road at the foot of the bridge back on Tuesday morning, March 4, and arranged traffic barriers to keep cars away from the western edge of the bridge, where the concrete girders that have raised strength concerns are located.

No vehicles weighing more than 5 tons will be permitted to use the bridge, other than ambulances in the event of an emergency.

Suffolk County officials have said the new temporary lanes and weight limits will be in place while engineers design a repair to the girders that will allow the bridge to be reopened to all traffic.

They have not given any forecast for how long the repair will take, but have said it is being implemented on an “emergency basis.”

Vehicles over 5 tons are being asked to use the Post Lane Bridge in Quogue or the bridges at Jessup Lane and Beach Lane in Westhampton Beach. Vehicles over 20 tons may only use the Beach Lane Bridge.

The Suffolk County Department of Public Works and New York State Department of Transportation cleared the bridge to be reopened last week, but said that the greatly reduced weight limits would be required until permanent repairs can be made to areas of deteriorated concrete.

The county announced on Friday, February 28, that after further inspections of the bridge earlier this week and new calculations of safe load limits, engineers had determined that the bridge can safely handle smaller vehicles and pedestrian and bicycle traffic, despite the structural issues.

The problems with the bridge were discovered in October during a routine inspection by the State DOT, but the bridge was not ordered to close until last month. Last week, engineers from the state and county were seen inspecting the underside of the bridge roadway on its western side, near its apex 55 feet above the waters of Shinnecock Bay — which is where the new barriers nudging traffic away from the western edge of the bridge have been placed.

State officials have said that their engineers had found signs of deterioration in the concrete girders that support the roadway along the more than 2,000-foot span.

“The Ponquogue Bridge is critically important to emergency services, businesses, and local traffic. We needed to find a way to open the bridge as quickly as possible,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said last week. “The [Suffolk County Department of Public Works] is proceeding to engage an engineer on an emergency basis to design a permanent repair to return this bridge to its 40-ton capacity. In the interim, NYSDOT will continue regular inspections to monitor any areas of concern.”

The county has still not offered any specifics about the extent of the concrete deterioration found by state engineers.

Initially the county had authorized ambulances – which typically weigh about 7 tons – to use the bridge in emergency situations but on Wednesday engineers rescinded that authorization, citing concerns about the weight distribution of the larger, heavier vehicles going over the bridge.

Firetrucks, which can weigh upward of 30 tons, will also not be able to use the bridge until it is repaired.

The East Quogue Fire Department is currently on call for responding to fires in the Hampton Bays portion of Dune Road, and the Hampton Bays Fire Department is working on new response strategies under the reduced weight allowances, Southampton Town Emergency Management Administrator Ryan Murphy said on Friday. Murphy said that ambulance companies are also using a mutual aid arrangement with Hampton Bays currently and that the town is working on alternatives for having ambulances on hand for the busy summer season if the bridge is not repaired by then.

Vehicles over 5 tons will have to use the drawbridge at Post Lane in the Village of Quogue until the Ponquogue Bridge’s full load rating can be restored. The Post Lane bridge has a weight limit of 20 tons, so vehicles larger than that will have to use the Westhampton Beach bridge, which has a 40-ton weight limit.

The Ponquogue Bridge had previously had a weight limit of up to 40 tons, but the new load limits will still allow most private vehicles and medium-sized delivery trucks to utilize the bridge.

Murphy noted that the large delivery trucks that service the commercial fishing port at the Shinnecock Inlet, the second-largest in the state after Montauk, will not be able to use the Ponquogue Bridge, requiring them to go through Westhampton Beach.

“We’re happy to get something going, something is better than nothing,” Murphy said. “But the goal is to get things back to where they need to be for safe utilization of the bridge by all vehicles.”