Route 50 Bridge Review Finds Improved Notifications Needed

OCEAN CITY – A multi-department review of last month’s Route 50 Bridge malfunction took place at the Public Safety Building last Friday, and city officials and staff were in consensus the town’s variable message signs need to be more accessible in emergency situations and a better public-private partnership is required to speed up communication.

Shortly after 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 26, the Route 50 drawbridge got stuck in the up position while it was being closed following a routine opening. The malfunctioning bridge immediately caused heavy resort traffic on a busy and cloudy Saturday afternoon in late July to back up along Route 50 as well as Routes 589, 90, 113 and 54 as motorists attempted to find alternative routes into Ocean City, essentially causing gridlock across much of northern Worcester County and lower Sussex County.

“The bridge was inspected by State Highway that Friday in anticipation of the White Marlin Open. Everything was greased up and looked at. This event was one of the machinery’s support beams about a 54-inch beam that had in engineering term section loss, which is a nice way of saying rust that twisted and snapped, and caused a failure that no one anticipated, including State Highway,” Emergency Services Director Joe Theobald said.

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