By CHRISTIAN MANAHAN
Staff Writer

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP – Although it is yet to be reconstructed, the Third Street pedestrian bridge will be dedicated to Carl Anderson, a former physical education teacher at the J. Harold Duberson School.

The announcement was made during a Township Committee meeting Monday, Sept. 15. 

Anderson is a Board of Education member for the local school district and his wife, Joan, is the township clerk.

Deputy Mayor Nelson Gaskill, who had Anderson as a teacher from fourth to eighth grade, said the bridge is somewhat symbolic of Anderson’s dedication to the community and particularly its youth, and dedicating it in his honor would be appropriate.

“It is something that I have been thinking of,” he said. 

Gaskill said that during gym class, Anderson would take the class across the pedestrian bridge to do recreational activities at Underhill Park. Even during the summer when school was out, Gaskill said, Anderson would drive around in his green Rambler with all sorts of stuff for kids to do, whether it was a baseball or equipment for maintaining the recreational fields.

“He had something for us to do every day,” Gaskill said, “even during the summer. He dedicated himself to the children of this community.”

Bids for construction of the pedestrian bridge are expected to go out by the end of September, Township Administrator Ed Sasdelli said, and construction of the bridge should be completed by the end of November.

The schedule is “a bit aggressive, but it’s doable,” he said.

Two months ago, the bid for the engineering portion of the project was awarded to W.J. Castle and Associates, a firm based in Burlington County, which came in with the lowest bid, about $20,000.

The bridge has been down for approximately five years; a small chunk is all that remains of the wooden bridge that once spanned 94 feet.

Hazardous conditions caused the governing body to disallow its use, officials said.

Deputy Public Works Director Ingrid Perez said in April that the township decided to disassemble the bridge to keep people from using it.

“People continued to climb over it,” she said at the time. “We had to take it down.” 

When replaced, the bridge would span Babcock Creek and connect Third Street and the Underhill Park Recreational area in Mays Landing, allowing access to the recreational facility without having to walk along to Harding Highway.
Township officials were unable to say when the bridge was constructed.

In 2005, the governing body went out to bid to replace it, but bids exceeded what the township was willing to spend.

The municipality has an agreement with Atlantic County to share the cost of replacing the bridge because it is part of the county bike path. The county will be or already has contributed $130,000 toward the project’s completion.