Government

Major Herbertsville Paving Project Will Repair Numerous Streets

by
Daniel Nee
October 23, 2019

A half-paved street in Brick’s Herbertsville section, Oct. 2019. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

Brick Township council members on Tuesday night awarded a contract to a firm that will resurface a number of roads in the Herbertsville section of town – mainly streets that were half-paved and patched following work by New Jersey Natural Gas.

The $513,707 contract, awarded to Meco Inc. of Clarksburg, covers the repaving of streets where gas mains had been replaced by NJNG only patched holes or repaired the half of the street where the lines were located. Brick’s construction code currently requires utility companies to completely repave municipal roads if they are dug up at all, but NJNG’s permit for the Herbertsville project predated the passage of the ordinance. Mayor John Ducey said the township attempted to partner with the gas company since paving crews were already in place for the half-street projects, but state law prevents towns and utilities from entering into partnerships.

The north-south streets where the work will take place will be milled and resurfaced between Herbertsville Road and Riviera Drive, which runs along the Manasquan River. The other streets will be fully repaved. The streets include:

Riviera Drive
16th Avenue
17th Avenue
18th Avenue
19th Avenue
20th Avenue
21st Avenue
Lindbergh Drive
Walnut Drive
Branch Boulevard
Main Avenue

“We were supposed to pave these roads two or three years ago,” said Ducey, but the township decided to hold off once it was found out that NJNG would be replacing mains there. “The money was there, but we didn’t do it because New Jersey Natural Gas was putting in these pipelines.”

Now that the gas line work is completed, the streets can be repaved and residents will finally have some fresh pavement on which to drive. It’s also going to begin quickly.

“This project is one of our frontline projects and it’s going to happen this fall because only half of the road is paved,” said Ducey. “It was supposed to be paved three years ago, so imagine what it looks like now.”