Roadway Nixed from Mahwah’s Improvement Plan

By Patch Editor Jessica Mazzola

Bellgrove Drive will need to wait until 2014 to be repaved.

At the beginning of the year, the roadway was one of the few designated by the township council to be a part of the 2013 Road Program. Most of the program this year was dominated by two projects – resurfacing on West Airmount and the repaving of the north side of Macarthur Boulevard from the overpass to Ridge Road.

The West Airmount project, which includes replacing a corroding pipe underneath the roadway, will cost Mahwah about $770,000. That’s $45K more than originally anticipated.

Township Engineer Mike Kelly reported at a township council meeting last week that the plan for paving Macarthur had changed. Instead of daytime paving during August only, the project will instead be paved at night only.  Kelly said concerns about the traffic impact of daytime paving on the roadway, which has construction happening on the overpass as well, prompted the switch.

To pave at night will cost about $15K more than originally anticipated.

To pay for the extra costs on both projects, the town used money leftover from the 2012 Road Program. Kelly said those costs soaked up what would have been used to repave Bellgrove.

Originally, the council thought it could finance all three.

“We didn’t realize we were pulling from the same [leftover 2012 money] pot,” for all of the projects, Kelly said. So, Bellgrove will need to be pushed to next year’s list.

Councilman Harry Williams said he was very, “disappointed,” by the news that the roadway would not be included this year.

Bellgrove, “is one of the worst roads in town; it’s an absolute mess,” he said.

“I wish we would have properly anticipated the cost.”