Morris Plains Completes Road, Sidewalk Repairs

The introduced an ordinance last month to fund a number of roadway and sidewalk repair projects.

The paving and milling of the roads were all completed this summer, and the sidewalks are nearly done.

The roads that were worked on are Forest Drive, Park Road, a portion of Malapardis Road, part of the parking lot at Community Park, and Sun Valley Way and Laurel Street.

For the Sun Valley Way and Laurel Street project, the borough received a state grant for $200,000. The total cost that the borough council authorized for all the roads is $300,000.

Councilman George Coogan said all of the road work includes milling the old road surface and repairing curbing and storm water drains.

Every summer, the borough participates in a program to pave and mill certain roads. Coogan said the roads have about 20 to 25 years of life, and if they don't repave the roads that need work every year, they start to deterioriate.

"Being proactive and doing the portion of the roads every year we keep the roads in good shape," he said.

The township also repaves roads every summer, and for a $900,000 bond to repave 14 roads including Canfield Road, Highland Avenue, and Midland Drive.

Both the borough and township get all of the road work during the summer when school is out and the roads are less traveled on.

The sidewalks that are getting repaired on in the borough are Littleton Road and Dayton Road. A sidewalk is also being added on Watnong Drive from Winding Way to Cutler Road. Last year the borough added a partial sidewalk on Watnong Drive from Glenbrook Road to Winding Way.

"It's a very narrow street, it curves, and there's a lot of people that walk on it," Coogan said, "so we felt it was safety issue to get people on the sidewalk."

The Watnong Drive sidewalk should be done this week, Coogan said.

Coogan also added that during the road projects, the asphalt shavings from the roads don't go to waste. The workers take the millings and use it to pave part of the driveway around the Community Garden.