During the summer season, approx 14,000 vehicles a day drive Margate’s Downbeach Express, the private toll-road connecting Margate & Northfield.
See update: Bridgehunter 2016 Data. Average daily traffic: 13,160.
75mph+ is common on this flat, remote stretch of roadway. No wonder turtle fatalities are up.
190 dead terrapins (turtles) in 2020. That’s more than double the previous year.
The Downbeach Express in Margate was built over an environmentally sensitive area in 1929.
Margate Bridge was built by the Ole Hansen Company.
For 60 years, Ole Hansen built roads, bridges and pipelines throughout New Jersey. According to promotional materials, their core business has transitioned to capitalize on their significant real estate holdings and acquisitions.
In 1963, the Hansen family, together with another local family, the Capaldi’s, purchased the two-mile causeway and four bridges from U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
In 2012, the company re-branded the Margate Bridge as Downbeach Express. It’s one of only 3 privately owned toll bridges in New Jersey.
Recommendations to save Downbeach Express Terrapins:
- Reduced speed during nesting season
- Flashing, warning lights
- Toll-taker reminders
- Public awareness campaign
- Better lighting
- Increase funding for tools & materials
Visit and support the Margate Terrapin Rescue Project.
Ventnor & Atlantic County may soon announce efforts to reduce Terrapin fatalities along Wellington Ave.
In past years young people installed black plastic tubular barriers on both sides of the roadway to prevent the animals for entering the roadway. Now these barriers are gone. After they were installed there appeared to be very few turtles in the road. So, Why have these barriers been removed or not maintained?
The speed of the cars in Margate is outrageous and people are tailgating you going over the Downbeach Express. I’ve had cars and trucks pass me at 60-70 miles per hour on the express.
I think the Margate Police are doing a great job, especially wit what they have to deal with, so I think Mr. Hansen should have some type of patrol on the Express.
Wow 14k cars per day at $2 a pop – Hansen is making around 28k per day so over the summer months alone it’s easily $2.5 million.
What an amazing business, owning a piece of what should be public infrastructure. Remember when Sandy hit and the Hansen bridge trolls still charged residents to go check on their wrecked homes?
Sorry, but 14,000 vehicles a DAY sounds like a completely wrong number with just 2 toll booths max in each direction, and one lane each way. I would bet that it is far more likely to be 14,000 a WEEK in season. There is just no way that a one lane stretch each way averages 14,000 a day, even in the summer. They should proof that claim, as logic and reality suggest it’s mathematically impossible.
Agree. There is no way possible that 14,000 cars a day even in peak season is correct. That would be almost 600 cars per hour, for all 24 hours of the day. Totally bogus number. A week? Perhaps.
With numbers like that no wonder Ole Jenny can afford to buy highly sought after homes in shore resort type locations for rehabbers but on the tally sheet its probalaby reads more like 1400 cars a day, or possibly a no(n) profit operation.