The Borough experienced a major failure in the sanitary sewer force main pipe leaving the Grant Avenue Pump Station before it crosses under the Shrewsbury River this past May. Our Borough DPW and Staff along with emergency utility contractors quickly made temporary repairs to maintain sewer service in the community and avert a potential environmental catastrophe. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection was alerted at the initial observance of the force main failure and had their field agents working with us throughout the repairs.

After evaluating the failed force main pipe section and assessing the likelihood of a subsequent failure, it was determined that installing a new force main under the Shrewsbury River would be the most cost effective and reliable approach to maintaining service to the community. In accordance with emergency acquisition protocol, the Borough contracted Colliers Engineering and Precise Construction to design and install a directionally drilled force main system under the Shrewsbury River. The new force main will actually consist of two 14” high density polyethylene pipes (HDPE) parallel to each other drilled to a depth of 25’ below the river channel bottom. The dual pipe system does not add conveyance capacity, but does allow for internal pipe inspection a feature the existing single pipe system does not have.

For reference, all sanitary sewage from the Borough of Rumson is conveyed to the Grant Avenue Pump Station where it is pumped into Sea Bright and then to the treatment plant in Monmouth Beach. The sanitary sewer system (piping in streets), pump stations, and force main piping was all installed in the mid-1960s and overall remains in good condition. The Borough contracts to have the pipes inspected, cleaned and rehabilitated (as necessary) to preserve the existing infrastructure.

It is anticipated the work will take approximately 6 weeks to complete. All work is anticipated to occur within normal working days and hours. This construction method is similar to the recently completed New Jersey Natural Gas and New Jersey American transmission mains installed under the river at the end of Old Rumson Road. Typical utility construction related inconveniences are expected, but sanitary sewer service is expected to remain in full operation throughout the project.

We look forward to working on this very important Borough project and ask for your patience as the work gets underway. If you have any questions related to this project, please contact David Marks, Rumson Borough Engineer, via email at dmarks@rumsonnj.gov.