08 Aug ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO ANNOUNCES REPLACEMENT OF FREEMAN STREET CULVERT IN ROSELAND HAS STARTED
Published on August 8, 2022
Roseland, NJ – Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. announced on Monday, August 8th that work has started to replace the Lakeside Avenue Culvert over the Wigwam Brook. The project is part of the County Executive’s ongoing initiative to modernize infrastructure and enhance safety for pedestrians and motorists.
“Our communities depend on County roads and bridges to get to work, go to school and go about their daily routines. We are aggressively improving and modernizing our infrastructure to make traveling through Essex County as safe and easy as possible,” DiVincenzo said.
“I applaud the County Executive for taking care of infrastructure throughout the County and bringing it up to date. This is good for the people of Essex County,” Commissioner Patricia Sebold said. “I care about protecting the public safety in Essex County – and this includes making sure are roads, bridges and traffic signals are up to date,” Commissioner Len Luciano said.
“On behalf of the Township Council, I want to thank the County Executive for this improvement to Lakeside Avenue. I also represent the Council on the Downtown District and this road is an instrumental street for us. It’s a great example of our ongoing partnership with Essex County,” Councilwoman Michelle Casalino said. Councilman Bill Rutherford noted that much of West Orange’s infrastructure is aging and he appreciated the County’s investment to modernize the culvert.
A recent inspection report concluded the culvert, originally constructed in 1920, needed to be replaced because its condition was deteriorating. The 36-foot-wide culvert carries two lanes of traffic, with one lane of traffic heading in each direction. The new structure will be a steel stringer and brick masonry jack arch supported on stone masonry abutments and will be similarly designed like the old one.
Essex County also is replacing four other culverts this summer: the Marion Avenue Culvert over the West Branch of the Rahway River in Millburn, the Mitchell Street Culvert over the East Branch of the Rahway River in Orange, the Locust Street Culvert over Lloyd Brook in Bloomfield and the Freeman Street Culvert over Foulerton’s Brook in Roseland.
Mott MacDonald from Iselin was awarded a professional services contract for $236,000 to design the new culvert. Pennoni Associates Inc. from Newark was awarded a $300,000 contract to perform construction inspection services for the Lakeside Avenue Culvert and the Dougal Place Culvert in West Caldwell projects. A publicly bid contract for $537,218 was awarded to Colonnelli Brothers from Hackensack to perform the construction work. The culvert improvements were funded with a grant from the NJ Department of Transportation Local Aid Program.