Bridgewater, NJ – At the Council meeting held on Thursday, June 29th, the Bridgewater Township Council formally awarded a contract to Earthworks, Inc. of Farmingdale, New Jersey. This project—taking place over four different sites throughout the Township—is 75% federally funded through the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

This funding was awarded to Bridgewater in response to damage incurred by Hurricane Ida in September of 2021. Subsequent to the storm, the Bridgewater Engineering staff hosted NRCS personnel at more than a dozen different sites around the Township, in order to receive the maximum amount of federal aid. During and after their visit, the NRCS staff members assessed each site to determine if it qualified for aid according to federal guidelines.  

Ultimately, four sites throughout Bridgewater qualified for NRCS aid and will undergo construction through this contract: Blossom Drive, Valley View Road, Long Road and Brookside Drive. Though the Blossom Drive project is the largest in scale, each is critical to the stormwater management in its respective neighborhood.

“This is a tremendous win for Bridgewater residents,” said Mayor Matthew Moench. “Stormwater management projects are notoriously expensive, so the federal funding we are receiving for these projects is critical. Our Township Engineer Bill Burr and his staff deserve the credit for making this happen. We remain committed to finding opportunities to make our communities more resilient to weather events.”

“I am very pleased to see this initiative moving forward and I am proud to have supported it from the beginning,” Council President Michael Kirsh. “On behalf of all residents, I’d like to thank Mayor Moench, Administrator Pappas, Bill Burr and everyone who has been a part of these critical projects. Their hard work has yielded a remarkable success for the Township at the absolute minimum possible cost to our taxpayers.”

Bridgewater Township’s Engineering office will work with the selected contractor to begin construction as soon as possible. They expect to schedule a preconstruction meeting to take place in the next few weeks.