GARWOOD – During last week’s meeting of the Garwood Mayor and Council, Borough Engineer Michael Disko gave an update on current projects being worked on in Garwood.
Mr. Disko first reported on the resurfacing of East Street, New Street, and Walnut Street. He stated that construction commenced on August 25, with contractors arriving at Walnut Street. Concrete work, including sidewalks, handicapped ramps, and two aprons for the fire and rescue squad, were all completed before the start of the school year.
New Jersey American Water performed three service repairs on Walnut Street before school started, and minor repairs on New Street. As of the night of last Tuesday’s meeting, the council was still waiting for confirmation from the New Jersey American Water on their service work, Mr. Disko said he hopes that the utility will begin to look into milling and paving and will do what they can to find a time that works with Walnut Street in regards to the schools schedule.
He also reported that point repairs for the sewers on various streets will be awarded to the low bid contractor, National Water Main, and a pre-construction meeting was scheduled. Mr. Disko stated that they are expected to get three repairs per day, so if they are a total of up to ten repairs needed, the overall project is likely to take three to four days with a quick, contained impact on traffic. They are also looking at additional point repair quotes, and Mr.Disko stated he spoke with National Water Main and confirmed they can get three in one day and will be targeting Oak Street where they believe they need the repairs.
Councilman Marc Lazarow asked Mr. Disko to explain further what the point repairs will entail so the public can have a better understanding. Mr. Disko stated that they traditionally have two repair options: dig or no-dig. The dig technique is a typical excavation with pipe replacement, backfill, and restoration of the trench. However, since many of the sewers in Garwood are up to fifteen feet deep in the ground, they require OSHA compliance, shoring, and traffic management, which could cause difficulty and is expensive.
The no-dig technique includes the point repairs, which is a six-foot linear section that is placed over the defect or over the multiple defectors if they are in the same part and a linear will be inserted into a damaged pipe and either fixed with heat, water or ultraviolet infrared and as it cures throughput the day it hardens and becomes stronger than the host pipe.
