Completion of County Bay, Fishing Park in Brick Expected This Month

Wedged between the Mantoloking Bridge and the Traders Cove Marina site will soon be a new county park.

Ocean County Freeholder Deputy Director John C. Bartlett said this week that construction on the park will be completed later this month.

"The new park nicely complements the area of Traders Cove and provides residents with a great place to enjoy the bay and all it has to offer," Bartlett said in a prepared statement on the project.

The park will be aimed at those looking to fish and crab, as well as anyone who wants to catch a glimpse at the activity – or lack thereof – on Barnegat Bay. The park will include lighted paths, a boardwalk, benches, a multiuse pier, two gazebos, two bait cutting and fish cleaning stations, and interpretive exhibits on Mantoloking Road at the base of the northwest side of the Mantoloking Bridge.

Since the new Mantoloking Bridge opened in 2006, a portion of the old bridge remained as an improvised fishing pier. But county officials, seeing the popularity of the location for anglers and crabbers, eventually began work on a park on a spit of land they owned adjacent to the bridge. The total cost of construction was $1,422,994, Bartlett said.

Eventually, the park will link to the larger Traders Cove site, on which Brick Township is creating an even larger park, officials said.

The county portion of the project will include parking for 55 vehicles and restroom facilities, as well as a 20-by-12 sun shelter on the fishing pier.