Unpaved Road Elicits Resident's Concern

A delay in paving portions of Onka Drive and Craig Drive—both part of the Claremont Sewer project—brought area resident to the Township Committee regarding the road safety.

“The sewer project is pretty much completed except for the roadway on Onka Drive and on Craig Drive,” Bob Lysyj, of 37 Onka Drive, said. “I invite everyone on this committee to take a ride down there.  It’s like an obstacle course. We have children playing there, we have raised manholes about four inches high.”

According to Lysyj, the road’s been in disrepair for about three months, after initially being torn up as part of the sewer project.

“Any time you call the Engineering Department, ‘Well, we’re working on it,” Lysyj said. “It’s been horrendous. It’s been horrendous for a whole year.  .  .I do ask that you come out and take a look.”

The Claremont sewer project installs sewer lines and hookups to several homes along Ann Street, Millstone River Road, Onka Drive, Craig Drive, Theodora Drive, Franklin Drive, Hamilton Road, Sunnyside Road, and High Acre Drive. The property owners receiving the sewer services are paying for the project, rather than using township tax dollars.

The homes in the sewer project area have septic systems now, however, health concerns about the systems prompted residents to petition the town for a sewer system. Many of the properties in the Claremont Sewer project area are on half-acre lots. However, environmental regulations require homes with septic systems to occupy lot that are at least two acres.

Lysyj also requested that the committee investigate the project process, citing traffic control problems and a lack of communication about closed roads. He claimed the traffic direction caused traffic problems for residents trying to leave their houses.

“Millstone River Road, you have Craig Drive and you have Onka Drive and they’re working on it and they have nobody at those streets to allow traffic out of those streets when you have construction at both ends,” Lysyj said. “You only have road cards at both ends to allow traffic at one way. Who’s protecting the person coming out? When you come out of Craig Drive and you look down to your right and there’s no cars coming, so you decide you have to go that way. The next thing you know, you go up the hill and you have traffic against you. There was no control.”

The private contractor, P&A Construction, handled traffic control for the project rather than the Hillsborough Police, according to Lysyj. Lt. Fran Mozgai, who commands the police patrol division, stated that the private firm is not required to hire local police for traffic control.

Most of the installation work on Onka Drive is complete, however, the company installing it cannot pave until the sewer line is tested, according to Township Administrator Mike Merdinger. Testing occurred a few weeks ago, however, the ground has not had an opportunity to dry out after recent rains, he said.

“You can’t pave until the line is tested and the line was tested only a few weeks ago,” he said. “You don’t want to tear up the road to test the line.”

“Because the contractor, P&A, is taking it down to the dirt because of the condition of the road, he really needs three dry days to do this,” he added. “.  .  . Once they get that paved, we’ll be in good shape.”