NJ American Water’s $10M Middletown project to last a year

New Jersey American Water’s $10 million investment project in Middletown, which begins this week, will upgrade the aging cast-iron water lines that were installed as far back as the 1930s with new ductile iron main, the Camden-based utility announced Oct. 7. 

The work is part of the company’s multimillion-dollar initiative to improve the water infrastructure in more than 100 communities across the state. 

Portions of the following streets will be affected: 

• Appleton Avenue 
• Atlantic Avenue 
• Bay Avenue 
• Bellevue Avenue 
• Brevent Avenue 
• Broadway Avenue 
• Burlington Avenue 
• Center Avenue 
• Concord Avenue 
• Florence Avenue 
• Franklin Avenue 
• Hamilton Avenue 
• Monmouth Avenue 
• Raritan Avenue 
• Ridgewood Avenue 
• Thompson Avenue 
• Vanderbilt Avenue 
• Viola Avenue 
• Washington Avenue 

The work will be done by NJ American Water contractor Perna Finnigan and is expected to be completed in about a year, weather permitting. Work hours will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Final street restorations will be completed in fall of 2023. Residents should expect some traffic disruptions. 

The project will also replace 20 fire hydrants, 250 utility-owned service lines along the pipeline route as well as any customer-owned service line that has been identified as lead or galvanized as part of a statewide initiative to remove all such service lines by 2031, the company said. 

In August, the utility announced a slight rate increase for customers, effective Sept. 1. The company filed a rate request Jan. 14 after it invested more than $985 million in similar infrastructure in treatment system and distribution upgrades since its last rate filing.