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BAY HEAD — The mayor and council at its meeting on Monday offered some updates regarding the timeline on repaving Bridge Avenue following the recent project to upgrade water mains, saying the roadwork should be complete by Memorial Day.
Bridge Avenue is an Ocean County road, so the council members said they do not have much input on when the work gets done. Councilwoman Diane Cornell, who is also the chair of the public works committee, said “So many people are asking us what is going on…on Bridge Avenue and how bad it is. Yes, it is terrible.”
New Jersey American Water recently replaced approximately 3,000 feet of aging water mains in Bay Head. The company upgraded the aging six-inch water lines that were installed as far back as the 1930s with a new 12-inch ductile iron main along portions of Bridge Avenue from Bay Avenue to Route 35.
The infrastructure project included replacing fire hydrants and utility-owned service lines along the pipeline route. Additionally, New Jersey American Water replaced any customer-owned service line that had been identified as lead or galvanized as part of a statewide initiative to remove all lead and galvanized service lines by 2031.
This $800,000 investment continued to advance water service reliability and increase water flows for household consumption and fire protection in the community. This improvement was part of New Jersey American Water’s multimillion-dollar initiative to accelerate the renewal of water infrastructure that has reached the end of its useful life in more than 100 communities across the state.
The project left the road surface covered in asphalt patches, making for a very bumpy ride down Bridge Avenue.
“Our engineers have been in touch with the county. As you know, this is a county road so we do not have a lot of say as to what happens there,” said Councilwoman Cornell. “We did have them come out and inspect it last month after we had our county meeting. They said they were going to have New Jersey American Water and Montero Construction come out and fix it. They have not done that yet.”
Councilwoman Cornell said the engineers have been in constant contact with New Jersey American Water officials, asking them to come out and repair the road. “We are doing everything we can on our end to get it done, but we can only do what we can do.”
The councilwoman urged residents to call the county and air any grievances with them in hopes of speeding up the timeline to get the road paved.
“It is very frustrating that they haven’t been doing anything. We are trying and we are calling constantly,” said Councilwoman Cornell. She also added that in previous meetings with the county, it was reported the work on Bridge Avenue should be completed by Memorial Day.
Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci said county crews are scheduled to be in Bay Head starting on Monday, April 8, barring bad weather, to begin repaving and making drainage improvements.
“By Memorial Day, we will have a brand-new Bridge Avenue. I know the mayor and the council have been making sure [New Jersey American Water] keeps to that schedule,” said Mr. Pannucci.
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Ocean Star—on newsstands Friday or online in our e-Edition.
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