Paved Mayor Carolyn Broullon is speaking with Monmouth County officials Monday morning, following yet another water main break on Bay Avenue that closed portions of the county road for several hours over the weekend. There was also an earlier water main break Saturday evening about 5 p.m. However, that break was repaired that night.
Broullon said, however, that both local residents and visitors were both accommodating and understanding with the closures, and the Highlands Police Department has been exceptional in handling traffic direction as well as stress levels and frustrations of motorists.
“It’s standard procedure to notify County officials because Bay Avenue is a county road,” the mayor said. Once the police department notified New Jersey American Water, the company notified the county, and work was started immediately to repair the break and repave the road.
Broullon , who was on site Sunday, said Monmouth County officials were also on site and since the damage to the road was so extensive by the water company accessing the break, it was directed to pave the road from curb to curb.
The Bay Avenue break happened some time before 9 p.m. Saturday night and was repaired and the roads open again by 1:30 Sunday afternoon.
Both the breaks and road closures have been especially frustrating to borough officials and troublesome to borough residents and visitors, the mayor said, since the borough had asked the water company to replace the decades old mains last year when the road was open for the new construction. The water company refused to do the work at that time, in spite of the aging lines, she said. Since the county completed repaving Bay Avenue on October 24 or last year, there have been 14 water main breaks.
