Update: Water Main Break Impacts 100 Berkeley Heights Residences

About 100 residences in Berkeley Heights are still feeling the affects of a water main break that occurred around 1:15 p.m. today on Plainfield Avenue near the Berkeley Heights Board of Education, Columbia Middle School and Washington Avenue.

Lt. John DiPasquale said the road is still closed between Roosevelt and Hamilton Avenue because “it’s a natural break for us to detour traffic.”

Luckily, all students are on spring break this week so the school system was not interrupted.

“It’s usually [takes] six to eight hours [to repair a water main break] just to err on the side of caution in case there are any complications and depending on the work they have to do,” said Richard G. Barnes, External Affairs Manager for New Jersey American Water.”[Our customers] either have low pressure or no water right now. In the meantime, we are delivering bottled water to those affected customers.”

Barnes said while the cause of the break is still unknown, there is a lot of aging infrastructure in the water company’s system and he’s working to determine how old the infrastructure is where the break occurred.

DiPasquale said all emergency services in Berkeley Heights were notified of the water main break and a crew from the water company is working to make necessary repairs.

Please continue to check New Providence-Berkeley Heights Patch for further updates.

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