  We consider a $SBS$ Josephson junction the superconducting electrodes $S$ of
which are in contact with normal metal reservoirs ($B$ means a barrier). For
temperatures near $T_{c}$ we calculate an effective critical current $%
I_{c}^{\ast}$ and the resistance of the system at the currents $I<$ $%
I_{c}^{\ast}$ and $I>>I_{c}^{\ast}$. It is found that the charge imbalance,
which arises due to injection of quasiparticles from the $N$ reservoirs into
the $S$ wire, affects essentially the characteristics of the structure. The
effective critical current $I_{c}^{\ast}$ is always larger than the critical
current $I_{c}$ in the absence of the normal reservoirs and increases with
decreasing the ratio of the length of the $S$ wire $2L$ to the charge imbalance
relaxation length $l_{Q}$. It is shown that a series of peaks arises on the
$I-V$ characteristics due to excitation of the Carlson-Goldman collective
modes. We find the position of Shapiro steps which deviates from that given by
the Josephson relation.
