Politics & Government

Township to Improve its Roads, Municipal Building

It will install new lights in Township Hall and will micro pave its roads.

The township will soon work to replace lights in its municipal building in an effort to save money on energy costs in the coming months. It will also improve its roads.

At a Township Committee meeting Thursday, Township Engineer John Ruschke said the municipality will use a technique called "micro paving" to revamp its roads.

Essentially, in the process, a slurry is placed on the road that extends the life of the pavement. Ruschke said it is a highly stable material.

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"We think we'll get eight to 10 years out of it," Township Administrator Thomas Ciccarone said during the meeting.

Other local roads will be paved over, such as Lafayette and Mount Vernon Avenues, since they need more significant repairs. He said the township Department of Public Works would do the paving work, and the micro paving work would be contracted out.

Find out what's happening in Chathamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sidewalk repairs will also be made along Lafayette Avenue. The improvements will cost a total of $1.35 million.

They will be spread out over the course of four to five years, so they will cost about $250,000 per year.

"This really becomes the focus of our capital improvement program for the next four or five years," Ciccarone said.

Environmental consultant Concord Engineering Group also recently completed an audit of the Township Municipality building and found that if current lights are replaced with more energy efficient incarnations, the township could save $65,000 per year. The township must spend $95,000 up front to complete the installation.

Township officials said they will likely add that item to their 2010 budget.


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