Complaining that the new street paving through the historic business district resulted in unacceptably shallow gutters, Fair Haven officials last night said they would order the contractor to redo the job, today’s Asbury Park Press reports.
From the story:
The issue is that the pavement is too thick on the sides, making curbs almost disappear, [Mayor Mike] Halfacre said.
“It should have been done right on Wednesday night, when their dump trucks and steam rollers were out there,” Halfacre said. “The only option is to go out there tomorrow night (today) and rip up the fresh pavement and do it right.”
The problem was obvious enough that a borough police officer working the night River Road was paved pointed out that the curbs weren’t high enough, Halfacre said.
“Our point is to call Earle up the first thing tomorrow (today). If they refuse, we’ll take immediate steps to terminate them, tell their (performance) bond company and get someone else (to repave it),” Halfacre said.
Earle Asphalt of Farmingdale is the contractor on the job, part of a $516,000 makeover of the the sidewalks, street lighting and roadway in the district.
Councilman Jonathan Peters said the issue isn’t just appearance, but that the low curbs will encourage drivers to park on the sidewalks, damaging them.
“Every Tom, Dick and Harry will pull cars and trucks up on the sidewalks, we’ll have every UPS and delivery truck up on the sidewalk; it is not a cosmetic issue,” Peters said. “Anything less gives us a compromised job.”
Borough engineer Richard Kosenski of T&M Associates said he’d been in touch with Earle after doing a survey of the paving job, and the contractor proposed installing decorative posts on the sidewalk, which would match the streetlights, and discourage vehicles from parking on the sidewalks.
Halfacre said he and council members started receiving calls about the paving job on Thursday morning.
“It’s incompetent supervision,” Councilman Jerome Koch said. “It’s not brain surgery to keep it to four inches (of pavement).”
This is the second time since the project began that the council has called contractors to task. In September, council members chastised another T&M
engineer over $67,000 in change orders they felt the borough shouldn’t get stuck with.
