Bergen County to reopen Court Street Bridge after $19.8M re-constructionFriday, September 7, 2012
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Noel Dunn never passes the bridge over the Hackensack River at Court Street without thinking of his old friend Harold J. Dillard.
THOMAS E. FRANKLIN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Walter Satos adding finishing touches to the Court Street bridge between Bogota and Hackensack, which reopens today. Harold DillardAs a kid, Dunn looked up to Dillard, who was a star athlete at Hackensack High School when they were growing up together in the 1960s. Dillard joined the Marines and served in Vietnam, where he rose to the rank of lance corporal and won the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm.
Dunn was hoping to learn how to run track from his older friend. But Dillard never came home. He was killed by artillery fire on May 25, 1967, during a battle in Quang Tri province. He was 20 years old.
Several years later, Bergen County officials renamed the two-lane bridge that connects Bogota to Hackensack after Dillard and put up a plaque in his memory.
Dunn, a 62-year-old New Milford resident, worried about the plaque when the county shut down the bridge for replacement in June 2010. Would people remember his friend's name when the new bridge reopened?
They did. Several members of Dillard's family were expected to be present this morning when county officials rededicate the Harold J. Dillard Bridge, which has been widened and rebuilt at a cost of $19.8 million.
Federal stimulus funds paid for $17.8 million of that total, with nearly all of the balance coming from state bridge funds, said Joe Crifasi, director of the county public works department.
The bridge was originally built in 1908. It had not undergone a major renovation since 1970, said County Engineer Joe Femia. It had the lowest structural rating of all of Bergen County's 195 bridges — a score of 1 out of a possible 100. When it is re-inspected later this year, Femia expects it will score closer to 100.
Because of its historic nature, the county incorporated about one-third of the truss steel from the old bridge into the new one, Femia said.
It is scheduled to reopen to traffic around 4 p.m. Femia expects it will soon be handling its previous average volume of 9,000 vehicles a day.
The new bridge has its critics. Because the Hackensack River is designated by the federal government as a commercial waterway, the county was required to build a bridge that swings open for large boats. But residents say it has been a long time since a barge or large boat passed by, because of all the silt at the river's bottom.
On Thursday morning, Dunn stopped by to see the bridge, as he has done frequently throughout the reconstruction. Workmen showed Dunn the plaque with Dillard's name.
Dillard, known to his friends as "Duke," was a three-letter athlete at Hackensack High School. He won honorable mention on the 1965 All-County track team on the strength of a 6-foot-4-inch leap.
Dunn remembered that he had been looking forward to Dillard's return from Vietnam.
"He was going to teach me how to run track and field," Dunn said. "I thought he would be here forever.
"I patterned my life a little after him," said Dunn, who served 18 months in Vietnam with the Army. "He was just one of those people who stuck with you."
"The bridge is beautiful. It's magnificent," Dunn declared after taking a brief walk across the span. He plans to attend the rededication.
"It's overwhelming that when you make a sacrifice, people remember," he said of his friend. "That means a hell of a lot to me."
Email: ensslin@northjersey.com
___________________________________
Related Topic:
Court Street Bridge Work on Schedule