Schooley’s Mountain Road Work in Washington Township To Begin Wednesday

The next phase of the 2016 road resurfacing program in Morris County will begin on Schooley's Mountain Road in Washington Township on Wednesday. Morris County officials expect the project will take about a month.

The scheduled work on Schooley's Mountain will begin with storm basin work on a busy section of road stretching from Springtown to Newburgh Roads, according to Morris County government officials. The $696,000 project, which includes guide rail upgrades, milling, paving, and road stripping, will start at 9 AM and end at around 4 or 5 PM each day.

Schooley's Road resurfacing is part of twelve miles of roads across 8 municipalities in Morris County that the county government authorized work on last month. Freeholders last month decided to go ahead with a portion of the resurfacing projects that had been put on the docket for 2016, despite a Trenton stalemate that has blocked access to the state Transportation Trust Fund. The projects, including Schooley's Mountain Road, are funded using only the available $4.1 million in county tax dollars, and not any of the promised matching funds from the state Transportation Trust Fund.

“The freeholders are committed to maintaining our infrastructure,’’ said Freeholder Director Kathy DeFillippo. “To allow busy county roads like Schooley’s Mountain Road, which carries so much traffic in the western section of our county, to fall to disrepair would not be acceptable. We will do what is necessary in 2017 to make sure our roads remain a priority.’’

Freeholders had anticipated $3.9 million in state aid, but now the rejiggered plan will be financed by $3.4 million in county capital funding that had been approved for resurfacing work, plus an extra $700,000 from the amount budgeted for rock salt purchases last winter. The original plan including state aid was for 22 miles of paving.

The current ongoing projects include:

• Schooley’s Mountain Road, Washington Township: The 2.4-mile project will run from Springtown
  Road to Newburgh Road. Basin work starts this week to be followed by milling, paving and striping. The entire project should take about one month. The contractor is Konkus Corporation of Chester. Work should run from 9 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. daily. Expect traffic delays due to alternating traffic flow, with possible detours.
• Lakeside Boulevard, Roxbury: The 0.9-mile project runs from Landing Road to the Sussex County
  border. Paving has been completed. There is just some traffic road stripe markings remaining.
• Center Street, Roxbury: The 1.7-mile project will run from Lakeside Boulevard to the Netcong border.
  Paving will start today (Tuesday 9/20) and should take about three days, followed by road striping. Motorists should expect some travel delays.
• Kenvil Avenue, Roxbury: The 1.0-mile project will run from Main Street to Route 46. Storm basin and
  ramp work are completed. Milling and paving will start soon, and should take two days apiece. Motorists should expect some travel delays.
• Mount Hope Road, Rockaway Township: The 1.2-mile project will run from Mount Hope Avenue to
  Reservoir Road. The contractor has completed storm basin work. There is no date yet for milling and paving, which will start once the Kenvil Avenue paving is completed. (The Roxbury and Rockaway Township road work is all technically part of one coordinated, $1.35 million county improvement project being done by Top Line Construction of Somerville, who won the county’s bid for the work.)

The revamped schedule of projects to be done this year also include:

• Boonton: Boonton Avenue, 0.9 miles, Sheep Hill Road to the Montville border
• Butler: Boonton Avenue, 0.8 miles, Route 23 to Kiel Avenue
• Chatham Twp.: Green Village Road, 0.4 miles, Shunpike Road to Bridge 1400-504 Chatham Twp.: Shunpike Road, 1.3 miles, Noe Road to Green Village Road Parsippany: South Beverwyck Road, 1.0 miles, Reynolds Avenue to Route 80
• Boonton: Boonton Avenue, 0.9 miles, Sheep Hill Road to the Montville border
• Butler: Boonton Avenue, 0.8 miles, Route 23 to Kiel Avenue
• Chatham Twp.: Green Village Road, 0.4 miles, Shunpike Road to Bridge 1400-504
• Chatham Twp.: Shunpike Road, 1.3 miles, Noe Road to Green Village Road
• Parsippany: South Beverwyck Road, 1.0 miles, Reynolds Avenue to Route 80

Other projects that had been scheduled in 2016 will be pushed back to 2017 due to the TTF funding issue. Letters have been sent to municipal engineers in those towns to notify them of the delays until 2017.

Image via Morris County Freeholders, used under Creative Commons.