BRICK – A multi-year, multi-million dollar renovation of the Department of Public Works site will begin shortly since the governing body voted to budget $2.2 million for phase 1 of the DPW Master Site Plan. It includes the removal of two underground fuel storage tanks that have met their life expectancy, plus all the site work and new building design.
According to township Business Administrator Joanne Bergin, in order to ensure compliance with CAFRA (Coastal Area Facility Review Act, a NJ law that regulates major development in the coastal area), the Master Site Plan includes infrastructure improvements such as the construction of new storage facilities, two new above ground fuel tanks and fuel station, a new salt dome, a vehicle wash facility, storm drainage improvements, more office space, sidewalk interconnection with green spaces, improved pedestrian circulation, and new lighting.
The Master Site Plan being discussed consists of a new 31,440 square foot structural steel building equipped with a six-bay drive-thru garage, three work bays, the vehicle wash station, and a 12,000-square-foot, two-story office area on the west side.
DPW Superintendent Stephen Krakovsky said there are two underground storage tanks (USTs) at the site, installed in 1994 – a 10,000 gallon diesel fuel tank and a 5,000 gallon gasoline tank – which have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years, which no longer meet NJ Department of Environmental Protection regulations.
“In the state of New Jersey, if you have USTs, they need to be registered, you need insurance from them leaking and they are subject to yearly inspections, so above-ground tanks are the way to go today,” Krowkowsky said.
The new above-ground tanks will be the same size as the underground ones that are being removed, he added.
Removing the old tanks is no small feat since they are under a layer of concrete which has to be jackhammered and removed. Once the tanks are taken out of the ground, the soil will be tested, and if necessary, removed if it’s contaminated, and replaced with clean fill, Krakovsky said.
He said that part of the DPW site renovation plan includes a truck wash station for all the garbage and recycling trucks, which will include undercarriage sprayers to remove salt and grime from under the salt spreading and snow plowing trucks.
“The DEP doesn’t allow washing trucks that handle garbage and let the water run off into the ground or into a storm sewer, so there are truck wash facilities that recapture all that water, clean it, use it and then it goes into a grease pit that we can then take to the landfill,” he said.
The township currently pays a company to wash the trucks every Saturday. They come to the DPW site and lay out a big rubber pad with a dam-like structure to keep the water contained. The garbage and recycling trucks drive onto the pad, get washed, and the water gets sucked out and brought to a sanitary sewer from where it is properly disposed of.
The new DPW building will be built about 15 feet in front of the current building on what is now a parking lot. Once the new building is constructed, the old building will be demolished and that site will become the new parking lot.
Buildings and Grounds will have office space in the new building, and there will be an outbuilding for storage for all their equipment, which is currently spread out all over town, he said.
Bergin said the “guesstimate” for the entire project is $9 million, which would be funded over at least four budget cycles.
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