HOWELL – Municipal officials celebrated the grand re-opening of a revitalized Aldrich Lake, Addison Road, Howell, with a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 19.
The project to dredge the lake and create a new recreation dock began in October 2017 and was completed in June. The cost of the project was $2.4 million.
Jim Herrman, Howell’s director of community development and acting deputy township manager, reviewed the project.
“Initial plans for this project started in 2004,” he said. “It was a long time coming and it was probably talked about for 20 years prior to that. (Dredging of the lake began) … but there were some discrepancies in the intial permitting work that caused us to stop for a while, so the (timeline) got pushed back.”
In about 2014, municipal officials began reviewing the conditions at Howell’s lakes and determining which lakes were most impacted.
“Most of you know we have (several) lakes in town – Lake Louise, Echo Lake, Aldrich Lake, Sparrow Lake and now the Bear Swamp Pond. We took a look at all of those and decided we needed to concentrate on Aldrich Lake and Lake Louise first,” Herrman told those in attendance at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Deputy Mayor Robert Nicastro, Councilwoman Evelyn O’Donnell and Councilman Bob Walsh were in attendance, along with engineers, the project manager and officials from the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority (BTMUA).
Herrman said the BTMUA in Howell’s neighboring municipality were instrumental in getting the project done. The authority completed a study of the Metedeconk River and the study, in conjunction with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), found that the Metedeconk River was most impacted in the area of Aldrich Lake.
“So out of the entire Metedeconk watershed, this area downstream of this lake is actually the most contaminated section in the whole area,” Herrman said. “A lot of that is attributed to two things, one was the material coming out of this lake, and two was the material coming into this lake. (The) Freewood Acres (section of Howell) is directly upstream of this lake and all the runoff from Freewood Acres comes down from the two streams and comes into the lake.”
Herrman said the issue required two solutions: Aldrich Lake needed to be dredged and sewers needed to be installed in Freewood Acres. Howell is now installing sewers in Freewood Acres. Herrman used the BTMUA report in his submissions to the DEP.
“We are happy to announce this (lake project) is finally done and the Freewood Acres sewer project was awarded” at the July 17 Township Council meeting, he said.
Regarding the Aldrich Lake project, in 2017 the council authorized $3.335 million for final engineering, construction administration and construction for the project. Bids were sought in September 2017.
“Bids ranged from $2.4 million to $4.1 million and thankfully for us Precise Construction of Howell was the low bidder. One reason (the bid) was so much lower than the initial estimate was because we had a beneficial reuse plan and that saved us $470,000 by taking material that was clean in this lake … and bringing it to our leaf compost facility.
“Now I am expecting proposals from soil testing companies to potentially mix that soil with leaves and create new top soil. That (top soil) can then be beneficially reused somewhere else. That is $470,000 by just thinking outside the box a little bit,” Herrman said.
“By the end of construction we removed just over 50,000 cubic yards of material and to give you an idea of how much that really is, 50,000 yards of material would cover a professional football field with 23 feet of material. That shows you how much material we needed to take out of this lake to get it back in its original condition,” he said.
He said the new dock at Aldrich Lake will add to Howell’s recreation opportunities. The final cost of all work was about $2 million, which was about $400,000 under budget.
Being under budget “was mainly due to the fact that once we started moving material, we had to test it all the way through, according to the DEP. We did that and what we found was that some of the material we thought might have been contaminated, and that we had to account for in the initial design, was not contaminated.
“We could not tell until we dug it all out and tested it, but we found out it was not contaminated and all the unregulated material saved us another $400,000. So we are really doing great on this project,” Herrman said.
Plans for Aldrich Lake call for the installation of picnic tables, benches, trash receptacles and a kayak launch. Sign boards will inform visitors about wildlife in the area. Parking is a concern and officials will seek to address that issue, he said. The lake is expected to be stocked with fish at the end of August.
Nicastro thanked the Lake Restoration and Wildlife Committee and the community as a whole for their efforts in getting the project done.
Walsh said the Aldrich Lake project was a long time in the making.
“Timing has a lot to do with things. We were in a recession and that was no time to be dredging lakes. There was no money,” Walsh said.
He said the project “needed to be done” and said he is pleased it was completed under budget.
“I think it makes a difference in the quality of life,” Walsh said.
