Route 537, which connects Highway 35 in Eatontown and Oceanport Avenue in Oceanport though Fort Monmouth, was reopened to the public on Tuesday morning.
EATONTOWN - For the first time since it was shuttered in 2011, Fort Monmouth is once again open to the public.
On Tuesday morning, county, state and local officials celebrated the reopening of County Route 537, which connects State Highway 35 in Eatontown and Oceanport Avenue in Oceanport.
The roadway, which is also called the Avenue of Memories, had been closed since Fort Monmouth was shuttered by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2011.
Monmouth County officials and representatives from the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority helped celebrate the reopening of County Route 537 through the former military base on Jan. 17, 2017. (Rob Spahr | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Monmouth County Freeholder Director Lillian Burry said the county lost 5,000 direct jobs and another 20,000 associated jobs when Fort Monmouth relocated its operations to Aberdeen, Maryland.
Burry called the reopening a very positive step forward toward the goal of repurposing of 11,000 acres of the base's property. She also compared the challenges of getting the roadway reopened to the first moon landing, though she claimed that getting the road reopened was more difficult.
"It is providing us the opportunity for the public to reacquaint themselves with what was (at Fort Monmouth) and what will be," said Burry, adding the reopening would also ameliorate traffic congestion on nearby roadways.
In order to return the approximately two-mile connector thoroughfare to public use, Monmouth County public works and engineering personnel installed temporary fencing, new signage and repaired traffic signals, as well was making drainage system repairs and improvements, realigned, reconfigured and repaved sections of the road.
There will also be video surveillance along the entire corridor that will be patrolled by the Oceanport and Eatontown police departments with assistance from the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office.
FMERA Chairman James Gorman called the reopening another major milestone in the revitalization of Fort Monmouth to the benefit of the local communities.
"With the reopening of this street, we will accelerate the economic recovery of our local communities," Gorman said. "We believe that interested redevelopers, local and regional builders, and business and civic organizations of all types and sizes will have an improved perspective on the redevelopment and see for themselves the opportunities available in participating in the redevelopment of this historic property."
FMERA is working to develop 1,585 housing units, 300,000 square feet of non-profit, civic and government and educational space, 500,000 square feet of retail space and 2 million square feet dedicated to offices, research and commercial uses.
State Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) said the reopening of Route 537 was an example of "making lemonade out of lemons" following the 2005 announcement that Fort Monmouth would close.
"Here we stand today with 75 percent of this 11,000 acres, sold, leased or out to bid," Beck said. "In the nation, this redevelopment effort is the most successful that has ever happened of a base that has been closed."
Oceanport Mayor Jay Coffey said the reopening the roadway would change the traffic pattern in his borough, but said officials there were not sure what the impact of that new traffic pattern would be.
"We haven't had real traffic on Oceanport Avenue since the fort closed. So it's introducing a variable into our redevelopment process," he said. "There are going to be some residents who are surprised at the volume of traffic that is going to come through here and I think that we're going to hear from some residents who are going to be unhappy with the volume, but the business community is certainly going to be happy with it."
Coffey said Oceanport's "business district" once boasted several popular businesses, but now only features a few that are surrounded by otherwise vacant storefronts.
"It hasn't been that way in about 20 years," he said. "This could be a precursor to the revitalization of our downtown. But, again, it's a variable. We don't know what the traffic pattern is going to be."
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.