At the new route 70 bridge over the Manasquan river, while tearing down the old bridge a barge fliped over and trapped 1 man under water yesterday. There was a Coast Guard hellicopter and also police and rescue units from Brick, Wall, Brielle, Berkley and Point Pleasant. They were getting the Monmouth County Sheriff diving teem ready to try to rescue the guy stuck under the barge. -Asbury Park Press article- BRICK — The 37-year-old construction worker killed when the barge he was working on flipped over in the Manasquan River Wednesday drowned, State Police said today, a worker for George Harms Construction Co., James P. Lovely, of Aberdeen, was working under the old Route 70 bridge at about 4 p.m. Wednesday on a 20-by-50-foot barge, which was connected to a push-boat. Dismantling of the 71-year-old drawbridge spanning the river between Brielle and Brick had begun Monday, and crews were removing the steel span that lifted the drawbridge. When both vessels overturned, a second man, Chris Ramano, 32, of Brick, who was operating the 25-foot push-boat managed to escape. Lovely, who was wearing a life preserver, attempted to jump from the barge. An autopsy, conducted Thursday night by the Ocean County medical examiner, showed Lovely, trapped under the barge, had drowned, said State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones. "We might not know definitively what happened under the boat but know that he had no catastrophic injuries from being struck by any debris,'' Jones said. Staff report
