This story was first published on June 19 and updated on June 25.
Update: Per Township Administrator Patrick Wherry, full closures of Springfield Avenue due to lead pipe replacement by NJ American Water’s contractor will continue through Friday, July 27. He had previously expressed a hope that the work would be completed earlier this week.
“The NJAW work requiring road closures is expected to be finished this Friday, June 27,” wrote Wherry in an email to Village Green on June 25. “After this week, NJAW still has work to do on Springfield Ave but it is not expected to result in road closures. The township is also doing work along Springfield Ave that is not expected to result in road closures until August when we fully pave Springfield Ave. We will release more information on that as we get closer to paving.”
The lead line replacement work that has caused re-routing of the major east/west corridor is part of a townwide project to replace lead pipes.
“Obviously there’s a lot of work going on Springfield Avenue,” said Wherry at the June 17 Township Committee meeting. “It is creating a lot of disruption to our residents. The work generally requiring the road closures is New Jersey American Water, who is replacing lead service lines. They have a subcontractor, Montana, who’s performing the work. Those service lines extend into the roadway and connect with the water main that runs in the roadway. Because of that work, they require road closures.”
Wherry said that NJAW “will still be doing some work behind the curb, but it won’t reserve result in road closures.”
Separately, the town’s contractor working on curb upgrades, including ramp upgrades and concrete work at corners and crossings will also be doing work along Springfield Avenue, but, according to Wherry, “they won’t require road closures.”
“The next time we will have road closures on Springfield Avenue is August when we repave the entire length of Springfield Avenue in Maplewood,” said Wherry.
Maplewood Township Committee member Vic De Luca said that the road paving would be start at the eastern end of Springfield Avenue near Irvington and then proceed west to the Union border.
