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The Asbury Park administration announced Thursday afternoon that the municipality has been awarded a $341,247 New Jersey Department of Transportation [NJDOT] grant to help mend its damaged roadways.

In the past few months, residents have come before the City Council asking when repairs will made to pot filled and cracked streets.

City Manager Michael Capabianco said they are in the midst of creating a road repair plan and that patchwork being done along Fourth Avenue being done to test their new hot patch system.

In the past we used a cold patch method that would deteriorate quickly [after a few months in some cases if whether played a factor], Capabianco said.

Mayor John Moor said the temporary fix also is being done to accommodate the reopening of Sunset Bridge and an increase in traffic as the weather warms.

The NJDOT will be applied to a permanent repair and repaving of Fourth Avenue, according to a news release.

Here is the release in its entirety:

TEMPORARY PAVING FIX FOR FOURTH AVE, WITH STATE GRANT FOR PERMANENT SOLUTION

New Jersey Department of Transportation awards Asbury Park $341,247

Partial repair work is now underway on Fourth Avenue by the Department of Public Works. Just a temporary fix, Fourth Avenue will be repaved with grant money coming in from the New Jersey Department of Transportation, as part of a plan by the City to roll out street repaving across Asbury Park.

The Department of Public Works [DPW] was joined by help from Monmouth County on pothole repair and in milling and repaving sections of the road which needed more than a pothole patch.

“We broke it up into sections where it was really bad, where places were more like ruts. You couldn’t fill them as potholes, they were beyond filling as potholes,” said DPW Superintendent Bill McClave. “This way Fourth Avenue is passable, and people won’t be breaking their teeth driving down it until we can get a total reconstruction done.”

DPW will use about 200 tons of asphalt to repave portions of the road. The critical areas were broken down into sections, starting at Ridge and Fourth avenues and moving down towards Memorial Drive. The process should be finished by the end of next week.

Aiding in the City’s long term paving plans, the New Jersey Department of Transportation has selected the City of Asbury Park to receive funding for their Fiscal Year 2016 Municipal Aid Program. The $341,247 from the DOT will go towards permanent Fourth Avenue improvements.

The yearly Municipal Aid program is highly competitive, Asbury Park being one recipient out of 641 applications, requesting more than $253 million. $78.74 million are available in funds from the Transportation Trust Fund.

“NJDOT is committed to providing statewide assistance for local governments for improvements to and preservation of the local transportation network,” Acting Commissioner Richard T Hammer said in a letter to Mayor John Moor. “The completion of your project will help achieve this goal and pursue a transportation strategy that provides mobility through managing the local roadway system.”

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