Full Notification

Mayor Luis A. Quintana, the Newark Municipal Council, and Acting Water and Sewer Utilities Director Andrea Adebowale announced today that the City of Newark is closing the Clay Street Bridge on three consecutive evenings, the nights of Tuesday, February 18, Wednesday, February 19, and Thursday, February 20, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., each night. The bridge may be closed again on the night of Friday, February 21, to accommodate additional work, if necessary. The work is being done to accommodate the construction of the Clay Street Combined Overflow (CSO) Solids/Floatables Control Facility on Clay Street, and the sewer pipes that will connect to the structure.

“We are working to improve and modernize water and sewer services to all the residents of the City of Newark. We are doing this work when it will have the least impact on our motorists. We ask that people who are being impacted by this incident, we ask them to be patient and find alternate routes during these work hours,” said Mayor Quintana.

“We have closed the Clay Street Bridge for these nights to complete the construction of a new facility that will enable us to treat the Combined Sewer Discharges in accordance with New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Mandates. I ask residents and motorists to continue to show patience and use alternate routes while we complete this important project to help clean the Passaic River for our residents and the residents of the State,” said Acting Director Adebowale.

The work was originally scheduled for this week, but the heavy snowfall that has impacted the region forced the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities and its contractor, Scafar Contracting, Inc., of Newark, to postpone the activity.

The Clay Street CSO Facility will enable the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities to meet state Department of Environmental Protection mandates to screen all combined overflow during heavy storms. Once completed, debris collected by the screening process will be transported to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s site in the East Ward for processing, while the overflow water will go into the Passaic River.

The project is being coordinated by the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities with the Borough of East Newark, the Town of Kearny, the Town of Harrison, Essex County, Hudson County, the City’s Division of Traffic & Signals and the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

For more information on any City of Newark program or policy, contact the Non-Emergency Call Center at (973) 733-4311.