Bridgewater Ranks Roads From Best To Worst, Creates Plan For 2021

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Bridgewater Mayor Matthew Moench is proposing a plan to spend $8 million over the next 5 years to remedy the roadways after all of 600 township roadways were assessed and ranked from best to worst.

Representatives from Pennoni Associates, the engineering firm who conducted the Universal Road Assessment (URA), presented the results of the assessment during a special Township Council meeting on Nov. 30.

To conduct the assessment they had two people drive every single roadway in Bridgewater in August, which is roughly 200 miles or 600 roads in the township.

While driving, photos were taken of the roadway every 10 feet so that an artificial intelligence platform, Roadbotics, could assess each segment of roads. The roads were then rated from 1 to 5 (1 being the best, 5 being the worst) along with an accompanying color (green being the best and red being the worst).

This data was then put into an interactive map to show the condition of each roadway. This map is available to be viewed by the public here.

Based on this data is how the township plans to prioritize roads to be remedied.

"We want to approach this from a data-driven perspective. That's the basis from which we start. Which are the worst roads, which roads cause the most problems for our residents because of traffic, location," said Moench. "With that said we are not a slave to the list."

In order to remedy the roadways in the township, Township Engineer William Burr proposed dividing Bridgewater into 6 road improvement sub-regions. The road projects in these sub-regions would be bid as packages for both the engineering work and construction, which would help create cost savings.

"By packaging it together we are getting more bang for the buck, will get it done more quickly and every segment in town will get roadwork done," said Mayor Matthew Moench.

Moench also asked the council to consider committing to $8 million per year in road capital spending (about $2.5 million more, on average, per year in comparison to the previous 5 years).

Moench said this investment would convey the following results for the Township:

• The reconstruction of all roads rated 3.5 and above (Red and Orange). There are currently more than 50 roads or more than 12 miles of roads in the township which fall under this category.
• The reconstruction or resurfacing of approximately 30 percent of the roads (which equates to 18 miles of roads) rated 2.5 to 3.49 (Yellow) by taking the neighborhood approach
• Approximately $500,000 per year in preventive maintenance in order to protect the Township’s investment on more recently improved roads
• Approximately $1 million per year for the milling and resurfacing of roads through the County Co-Op

"Just like many of the roads in Bridgewater did not crumble overnight, the problem will not be fixed overnight but the residents of this community deserve a thorough and transparent plan that sets realistic yet aggressive goals," said Moench. "I believe that this will accomplish just that. There is still so much work to do, but last night’s presentation was a big step in the right direction."

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