TOWNSHIP SAYS WATER COMPANY DID NOT WARN THEM ABOUT VALLEY STREET WORK

Township officials received no advanced warning of the Valley Street roadwork by N.J. American Water that has sparked long closures and increased side street traffic for the past week, according to Township Administrator Joseph Manning.

The work began April 25 and has continued since. But the Township did not formally notify residents until April 27 and has updated them daily via mass emails ever since. The work is expected to continue through the end of this week, with another phase in a few weeks.

When asked about advanced notification from the water company, Manning said via email, "The first I heard of the shutdowns was through an email from you."

He later added:

NJ American Water did not notify my office or take out a roadway opening permit
through the Engineer's Office. I do not know if they contacted the County.
Typically when a project of this scope is getting ready to begin, a preconstruction
meeting would be held and various issues such as traffic control would be discussed
and decided. No preconstruction meeting was scheduled.

I was told today by our Engineer Paul Kittner and Police Chief Cimino that this
phase of the project should be completed this week. There will be a next phase of
the project but they have assured me that a preconstruction meeting will be held. 

In the meantime the police will continue to notify the community 

through Nixel notices about traffic situation on a daily basis

We reached out to New Jersey American Water for comment and Spokesman Richard Barnes issued this statement:

Before we begin water service improvements we work with the 
municipality and county before the projects begin. This includes 

obtaining the necessary permitting and providing the town 

with the scope of the work  being done.  

He also referred to a general notice sent to customers last year but it contained no specific dates about when the work would take place. See it HERE.

Essex County, which oversees Valley Street, did not respond to a request for comment about its notification or involvement in plannig.