Mahwah has added a list of six township roadways to its 2012 road improvement program. The following roads will be paved by the end of this year, township engineer Mike Kelly explained at a town council meeting last week:

• A portion of Mahwah Road
• Doremus Road
• Alcott Road
• Babcock Road
• Davidson Court, and an adjacent portion of Olney Road
• Stone Wall Court

Earlier this year, the town council approved over $1M in funding to pave West Airmount Road, Ridge Road, Moffat Road, Lawrence Road, Bellgrove Drive, Armour Road and the section of Mahwah Road between Oweno and Malcolm Roads, on the side of the Betsy Ross School.

One of the major components of the original 2012 road improvement program was the rehabbing of W. Airmount, which will require about $590K worth of work to completely replace a corroded pipe running underneath the street, township officials said.

However, at the meeting, Kelly told the council that the project will be delayed about a year, while the township applies for DEP permits to complete the project. In the meanwhile, the town is planning a temporary fix of the roadway, that will be much less expensive. The council voted to use the funds originally allocated to that project to pave other roadways, and rebudget for the W. Airmount project next year.

The six roads approved will cost the township an estimated $400K, leaving an excess in funding since nearly $600K was allocated for the W. Airmount project. Kelly said the council will be able to approve additional roads later in the year. “We will exhaust our entire budget, but we’ve found it works better to monitor the actual costs as you go, and then add on roads as you can,” he said.

The list of roads that will be paved this year was determined by taking into consideration resident complaints, recommendations from the township administration and field analysis of roadway conditions, he said.

Ridge Road will be paved first, Kelly said. “We are on a tight schedule, because that needs to be finished during the summer.” According to Kelly, the town is still waiting on approval from the Department of Transportation on that project, but aims to complete the repaving after school lets out.

“The rest of the roads will probably be paved later this summer or in the fall,” he said.

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