Bumpy Avenue in Roxbury Might Not Be Smooth Until Autumn

ROXBURY, NJ – Kenvil Avenue, riddled with uneven pavement since a 2023 gas line replacement project, was supposed to be repaved this spring.

Spring came and went, but the temporary pavement patches remain, and they might be there until autumn, according to Morris County, which owns and maintains the mile-long thoroughfare that connects Main Street in Succasunna with Route 46 in Kenvil.

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The rough condition of Kenvil Avenue was raised by Roxbury Councilman Jim Rilee at the July 9 meeting of the Roxbury Mayor and Council. He asked Roxbury Township Manager John Shepherd about it, commenting, “You can’t tell me they’re waiting for the warm weather.”

That was likely a reference to a statement made in October 2023 by Morris County Communications Director Vincent Vitale: “Final pavement restoration will occur in Spring 2024,” he said in response to a TAPinto Roxbury inquiry.

Responding to Rilee, Shepherd said the temperature has nothing to do with the delay. “No, they’re definitely not waiting for the warm weather,” he said, explaining that the county needs to make some repairs to stormwater drains on the road before repaving can occur.

“The other issue is the town has to make one sewer repair,” he added. “We already authorized that work, so we’ll have our work done. It’s really whenever the county’s ready. At some point they have to get their drainage work done. I believe the paving company, on behalf of the gas company, is ready to go.”

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A representative of the county Engineering Department concurred with Shepherd’s report. She said the Morris County Board of Commissioners is expected to sign a contract on April 24.

“So, as a guesstimate, we’re expecting work to begin at some point in August,” she said. “We will be in touch with the town so the town can alert the citizens. It hasn’t been ignored; it’s just going through the process.”

For Roxbury Mayor Jaki Albrecht, who lives on Kenvil Avenue, that process has taken way too long.

“My neighbors and myself are very sleep-deprived due to the deplorable conditions of Kenvil Avenue northbound,” she said. “It is a constant banging of vehicles on the gas line cutouts that shakes our homes. I keep looking for cracks to appear after the very large trucks bang past. The shame of this is that the road was replaced a very few years ago.”

The road was repaved about eight years ago but was torn up by New Jersey Natural Gas in 2023 when the company replaced old steel gas mains in what former Roxbury Department of Public Works Director Rick Blood described as a very complex project due to the sandy ground in Kenvil.

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