Paving Mayor Aitken Drive
By Albert B. Kelly
There are certain projects that any mayor can’t help but
love. Such projects are the “meat and potatoes” of municipal government, a
“deliverable” courtesy of the bureaucracy in spite of its nuts and bolts and
slow moving gears. In this case I’m talking about street paving and
specifically the milling and repaving of a portion of Mayor Aitken Drive running
through the heart of Bridgeton City Park.
The reason mayors of all stripes love this type of project
is because street paving constitutes the basic stuff that municipal government
is expected to do- similar to snow removal, trash pick-up, and water and sewer
service. We also love it because it’s high visibility and if done well, it’s noticed
for a time afterward. This is the opposite of snow or trash removal where the
measure of success is that you don’t really notice at all if it’s done well;
sort of like the measure of good umpiring in baseball.
Bureaucratic sentiments aside, starting in the next couple
of weeks there will be temporary detours of various types moving traffic away
from different sections of Mayor Aitken Drive during the working part of the
day. If you use Mayor Aitken Drive to navigate through the city during the
workday, please be prepared for these temporary detours. Likewise for those
visiting the park or zoo, there will be temporary variations for parking even
as we try and keep inconveniences to a minimum.
Until I actually served as an elected official, I’d never
given much thought to street paving. Like everyone else, I’d grumble and
complain whenever a street I’d use had fallen into disrepair with potholes,
especially the potholes large enough to pass for a bomb shelter. But over the
years, I’ve learned that the process involved with paving is no simple thing.
After the bidding process, which is its own thing, there’s a
preconstruction meeting. If you’ve never sat in on any preconstruction
meetings, the only thing I’ll say is that you come away impressed with the
people who work through each aspect of the job. These include the engineers,
technical people, regulatory folks, and the individuals overseeing the boots on
the ground.
They cover everything from the location of storm drains and
curbing, to trees, guardrails, and any other potential pitfalls, hazards or
anomalies they might encounter during the job which are generally the things
I’d drive by without giving them a second thought.
In the case of the Mayor Aitken Drive project, this will
include the “flower island” at the park entrance which will be altered and
reconstructed so as to be more complaint with DOT standards and safer for
traffic. The other aspect of this job includes the repaving of three parking
lots in City Park including the lots at the former Water Works Building, the
lot where the old park office was located, and the lot serving Veterans Park.
All of it is part of our multi-year focus to slowly but
surely make Bridgeton City Park and Cohanzick Zoo the best that it can be. The
capping of the former landfill is nearly complete and planning will shift to a
reuse that includes combining solar with passive recreation (walking trails). Other
possible projects include a dog park. But the park is not our only focus.
In 2018, Bridgeton was awarded slightly more than $600,000
to reconstruct N. Lawrence Street, Lake Street, and Franklin Drive. This effort
will shift into high gear soon. Going forward, Bridgeton is preparing to utilize
roughly $461,000 for the reconstruction of Spruce Street.
In addition to the road projects above, we successfully
applied for and received approximately $500,000 in DOT discretionary funding to
deal with a portion of deteriorated sidewalks in the downtown including trees,
roots, lighting, and related infrastructure. These projects- all $1,582,476
worth- mark slow and steady progress in all corners of the community courtesy
of some hard working people up and down the bureaucratic ladder with the NJ
Department of Transportation at the top.
That’s not to suggest it’s simple as NJDOT receives requests
for funding from every part of the state and they do their best to distribute
resources evenly, which is why funds were allocated to roads as diverse as
Tindall Road in Greenwich and Newell Road in Maurice River Township, to Forest
Grove Road in Vineland and Sixth Street in Millville.
In the world of municipal infrastructure, “slow and steady”
is no small thing.