According to Essex County officials, work has started to rebuild the 60-year-old Marion Avenue culvert that permits a Rahway River tributary to pass beneath a residential road close to the South Mountain Reservation.
According to a county official on Monday, the project “should take around two months to complete depending on weather.” “The diversion won’t be too spectacular because it’s in a residential neighborhood.”
The vicinity of Marion Avenue is not far from the Maplewood boundary, close to Glen Avenue, and the South Mountain Reservation.
A culvert is a little water passageway under a road. See the several culvert kinds here, including more ancient stone ones.
The Freeman Street Culvert over Foulerton’s Brook in Roseland, the Mitchell Street Culvert over the East Branch of the Rahway River in Orange, and the Locust Street Culvert over Lloyd Brook in Bloomfield are the other three culverts that will be replaced as part of this project.
The 1962-built culvert was found to require replacement due of deteriorating conditions, according to a recent inspection report, the county stated.
Two lanes, one in each direction, of traffic are carried by the 27-foot-wide culvert.
Similar to the existing one, the new construction will be a three-sided culvert.
A professional services contract was given to French and Parrello to design the upgrades to the four culverts and provide construction inspection services for the project. Grade Construction of Paterson was given a $2,878,204 openly bid contract to rebuild the four culverts.
A grant from the Local Aid Program of the NJ Department of Transportation was used to pay for the culvert upgrades.
According to the county, the project is a part of the county executive’s continuous effort to update infrastructure and improve safety for drivers and pedestrians.
County Executive DiVincenzo stated that “our communities depend on county roads and bridges to commute to work, go to school, and go about their daily routines.” To make moving across Essex County as secure and simple as possible, we are actively updating and enhancing our infrastructure.
According to Commissioner Patricia Sebold, “This investment to upgrade the culvert would be a benefit to the people.”
