Sparta Gas Main Installation Could End After May 1: Official

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — Construction began recently to install a six-inch plastic gas main line in a section of Sparta, according to Sussex County Administrator Greg Poff.

Poff told Patch in an email statement that Elizabethtown Gas — through its contractor Penn Bower Inc. — started the project to provide residential, natural gas services in the Sparta and Byram areas along Stanhope Sparta Road.

The roadwork is being done on County Route 605, known as Sparta Stanhope Road, from Canterbury Drive in Sparta, to Byram’s Amity Road, also called County Route 671.

The work began on Feb. 7 and is expected to last until approximately May 1, Poff said. But that date could be delayed because of inclement weather conditions, he added.

Poff said the county has “issued a road opening permit that outlines the general and specific conditions the company and its vendors are obligated to follow” for the project, with traffic control the responsibility of the project's traffic control director.

According to a county notice, there may be road closures at times during the project, which could cause delays. Drivers may need to take alternate routes during construction, the county said, with some construction taking a single lane, with “flagger-controlled closures” of the roadway.

Construction expected to happen will include:

• Excavation up to 42 inches deep in the northbound lane for about 7,000 linear feet.
• The six-inch plastic gas line placed into the trench.
• Backfill of the area with “dense graded aggregates compacted to a minimum of 95 percent.
• Asphalt mix layered onto the surface of the trench.
• Re-striping of sections of the roadway where the road was disturbed.
• Gas service installations to residences.

For full information about the gas main project, click here for the county’s website.

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