Happy spring, Moorestown! Along with the crocuses and baby rabbits, the other sure sign of spring in Moorestown is road work. There are 102 miles of road in Moorestown: 74.6 miles are municipal roads, 24.7 are county roads and 2.7 miles of Route 38 is a state road.
Freeze and thaw cycles throughout the winter creates stress on cracks in the pavement, which leads to potholes. Our Department of Public Works takes care of making those minor repairs in municipal roads, so if you notice potholes that need repair, you can report it online at https://www.moorestown.nj.us/RequestTracker.aspx. And if you notice potholes on county roads (see https://www.co.burlington.nj.us/917/County-Roads for a list), you can call the Burlington County pothole hotline at 609-265-5021.
The township maintains a running list of which municipal roads get paved when, and each year identifies the roads in need of resurfacing based on age and damage. This year we received a grant from the NJDOT to resurface and make other improvements to Cox and McElwee Roads. In addition, our 2021 proposal includes finishing resurfacing of Devon Road (from Bowling Green to Camden) and also resurfacing portions of High Street, Crider Avenue, Devon Road, Paul Drive, Springhouse Lane and East Main Street from Poplar Avenue to Marter Avenue.
As you’ve no doubt noticed, East Main Street is in terrible shape, maybe even the worst road in town. Much of that damage is due to the old trolley tracks that are still in place, under the pavement. You can even see sets of long grooves in the pavement, on both sides of the street, that indicate exactly where the tracks are and how much damage they cause.
Digging up all the pavement and removing those tracks would be extremely expensive but leaving them there has meant that the pavement degrades faster than normal. This year our township engineers have identified a new technology – a kind of mesh that goes under the pavement but over the old tracks – that will help protect the new pavement from that damage and make it last longer. So you can expect to see work on East Main beginning this summer.
If you’re wondering why we’re only paving East Main from Poplar Avenue to Marter Avenue, it’s because there is a 100-year-old, concrete water main under Main Street, from the water treatment plant on Kings Highway to Poplar Avenue. It is many years past its expected lifespan and overdue for replacement.
Since we obviously don’t want to spend money to resurface all of Main Street, only to have to tear it up to replace the water main, the plan is to replace the water main and resurface Kings Highway and Main Street from the water treatment plant to Church Street this year and do the same for Main Street from Church Street to Poplar Avenue next year. If you have any questions about this year’s road resurfacing program, or anything else, you can let us know by emailing the township council at council@moorestown.nj.us.
