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The bridge over Deal Lake that connects Asbury Park and the Wanamassa section of Ocean Township closed Friday morning.

In the months ahead, Sunset Avenue bridge will be taken apart and a new, wider, two-lane bridge built with 6-foot shoulders and sidewalks along each side, according to a construction official.

Full replacement will take about a year and a half and Monmouth County officials — the county owns that portion of the roadway — hope to have the project completed by next summer, 2016.  Until then, a detour will divert drivers to a crossing along Wickapecko Drive.

Workers said the project staging area will be contained to a triangular piece of property located at the southeast corner of the bridge in Asbury Park. But on Friday morning, construction equipment and machines lined Sunset Avenue near the bridge in Asbury Park, some directly in front of Sunset Landing Luncheonette, a 53-year-old restaurant located adjacent to the bridge that already sees a smaller number of patrons walk through the doors in the winter months.

Luncheonette owner Donna Logdon said the lakefront restaurant will keep normal business hours and remain open, but looking out of the front windows on Friday to see front loaders and cranes already taking up more than their fair share of parking spots directly in front of her business she wondered how much the construction would ultimately affect her bottom line.

“People need to know I’m here and I’m open,” she said.

Logdon attended one of the public information sessions held to keep local residents and business owners apprised of the project Thursday, but left feeling her concerns were not addressed. They included the overall safety of her property, noise, and environmental concerns that include the safety of the ducks she cares for, which spend their winter under the bridge.

Each day, the flock of water fowl head over to a gated part of the lawn where Logdon and her staff feed them. Over the years, they have instilled themselves as a part of the luncheonette’s “charm,” she said. Recently, hatchlings from a school in New York City were given to Logdon; she raised them in a fenced-in area and finally let them loose once they could quack. They’ve since grown to become a part of the team.

“I just want to keep them safe,” Logdon said. “Kids come to see them and watch us feed them. They they come when I call them.”

She hopes construction officials will be sensitive to the plight of the ducks, and that the county will assist financially so that a bubble or removable greenhouse-like structure can be built along the shoreline near the luncheonette so the mallards can nest safely over the winter. She estimated the total cost to be under $1,000. County officials told her Thursday they would get back to her via e-mail, she said.

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