From the Township of South Orange:
Long awaited improvements to Scotland Road, a county road in South Orange, began in May with the award of a contract to Colonnelli Brothers set to replace the water main that runs the length of the roadway. The South Orange Water Utility and their consultant engineering firm, HDR, will oversee the project with help from New Jersey American Water, the operator of South Orange’s water system. Together they plan to replace the 120+ year old water main while adding 39 new LED gas lamp lookalike street lights and improved curbing. When this phase is complete in August, Essex County will take over the remainder of the project that will include repaving of the road, grooved pavement on center lines and curve shoulders, re-centered lanes, shoulder striping, and crosswalk striping, ADA accessible intersections, ramps, and crosswalks, signage, and a raised intersection (speed table) at Raymond Avenue to help slow traffic. As a finishing touch South Orange will plant up to 50 street trees along the route to further improve the aesthetics of one of its busiest corridors.
6/25/2020 Update:
Reminder: A few test pits are planned Friday 6/26 in a section of Scotland Road between Montrose Ave. and Randolph Place that will cause some traffic inconveniences (one lane closures).
6/26 – continue with Scotland Road Closure from 8:00am to 4:00pm or slightly later – working on resident transfers to temporary main, installation of new main, installation of electric conduit and posts for new street lights.
Saturday work for 6/27 has been called off due to weather.
More on the Scotland Road improvement project from southorange.org:
Scotland Road Improvements – 6/25/2020 Update:
Comprehensive renovation will address water main, street lighting, paving, and traffic safety improvements.
Detours and disruptions will be ongoing from May through Sept, 2020 so residents and travelers are encouraged to seek alternate routes and subscribe to the following information sources for regular updates.
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Sign up on www.southorange.org for “Water Utility” alerts using the Village’s “Notify Me” text and email service.
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Traffic Rerouting Plans:
For the current phase ending 6/22 Scotland Road will be closed from south of Montrose Ave. to Ralston daily at 8:00am through 4:00pm.- South bound traffic should turn right at Montrose Ave., proceed one block turning left onto Vose Ave., then left onto Ralston Ave. for one block, and then continue on Scotland Road.
- North bound traffic should make a left turn on Ralston Ave., proceed one block turning right onto Vose Ave. and then to Montrose Ave to continue North.
- 6/25/2020 Update: Reminder – A few test pits are planned Friday 6/26 in a section of Scotland Road between Montrose Ave. and Randolph Place that will cause some traffic inconveniences (one lane closures).
- Saturday 6/27/2020 work called off due to weather.
- 6/26/2020 – Continue working on resident transfers to temporary main, installation of new main, installation of electric conduit and posts for new street lights.
- Starting Monday 6/22 residences on Scotland Road from Montrose to Irving will have their services switched to the temporary main. A short interruption of service will occur during switchover. Hang tags are being placed for this notification.Once switchover is completed the contractor will remove and install a new section of the water main and in parallel will install for the new lamps conduit, lamp bases and handholds.
- Starting 6/13/2020: The contractor has requested additional time due to delays in obtaining material, time for sanitizing pipe and unidentified road conditions to work on Saturday’s this month and early July which would mean Scotland Road closure from Montrose to Ralston from 8:00am to 5:00pm.
- Traffic Plan for Phase III projected to begin on or about June 22 can be found at: https://www.southorange.org/DocumentCenter/View/2360/Scotland-Road-Traffic-Plan-Phase-III
- Water Service: A temporary water line will be used to supply water to a resident’s home while the main in the street is being replaced. The temporary line will be laid along the resident’s side of the sidewalk. Ramps will be provided where it crosses driveways. 72 hour notice (hang tag) will be provided to indicate that there will be a service outage while transfer is made to and from the temporary service. The first bypass will be installed between Montrose and Irving on both sides of the road the week of 6/15. Scotland Road residents should look for a hand delivered letter from SOVWU.
- 6/9/2929 Update: Short term Work schedule: Planned for the end of this week the contractor will install a temporary water main from Montrose to Ralston on both sides of the roadway along the resident side of the sidewalk including ramps at driveways. The temporary main will be sanitized and tested prior to being put into service. This process is projected to take five (5) days thereafter residences will be transferred to the temporary service. A 72 hour notice will be provided to residents prior to the transfer via hangtag placed at the resident door. There will be a short service disruption for the transfer. This process will be done in sections allowing removal of the old main and installation of the new main, sanitized and made ready to be put into service. New copper service lines will be installed to the new cubboxes and again a short service disruption to transfer to the new main. Also in this section of Scotland Road electric conduit will be installed from the electric roadway manholes to handholds and lamp bases installed in the space between the curb and sidewalk in preparation for the new LED gaslamp look-alikes.
Contact Howard Levison, SOWU Administrator with questions at (973) 378-7715 x7760 or (973) 432-4664 or hlevison@southorange.org.
The South Orange Water Utility contractors will post hangtags on doors 72 hours prior to when homes will be directly affected. The timetable for the Essex County paving portion of the project is still not set but the South Orange website and social media will be updated with it when the county releases the information. More information and schedule updates can be found at http://southorange.org/653/Scotland-Road.
