NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—City officials are preparing to select a company to to replace the sewer infrastructure on Joyce Kilmer Avenue near the intersection of Charles Street.
The flooding has been a persistent problem since at least 2008, when the county and city re-designed a culvert over a stream at that intersection.
“Whatever they did to Joyce Kilmer in the last procedure they performed… has made the problem worse,” Danielle Moore told the City Council in 2012.
Even during minor storms, the intersection has flooded, repeatedly damaging basement apartments in a building at 29 Charles Street and leaving the streets covered in sediment.
According to Moore, the flooding has at times backed up all the way to the nearby Foodtown parking lot on Elizabeth Street.
“It’s affecting a lot of people,” Moore said. “The problem keeps spreading down the road, just because of that little stream.”
Among the areas affected by the flooding include the campus of the Greater Brunswick Charter School, located at 429 Joyce Kilmer Avenue.
The city received bids from five different New Jersey construction companies, ranging from $245,311 to $537,111.
“Construction should start within two months of the awarding of the bid,” said New Brunswick spokesperson Jennifer Bradshaw
Bradshaw said the sewer main repair project is estimated to cost $350,000. Four of the five bids came in at prices significantly lower than that figure.
The lowest bid was submitted by Newark-based Rock Solid Construction, but according to the city’s list of bidders, that company did not provide paperwork regarding their sub-contractors.
Below is the list of bids received:
- Rock Solid Construction, Newark, NJ. – $245,311.00
- Kmetz Inc., East Brunswick, NJ – $247,907.70
- John Garcia Construction Co., Inc., Clifton, NJ – $288,675.15
- Black Rock Enterprises, LLC, Old Bridge, NJ- $310,803.00
- Montana Construction Corp., Inc., Lodi, NJ – $537,111.00
According to Bradshaw, the city expects to award a construction contract to a bidder by the end of March.
