Newark Lead Service Pipe Replacement Project Expected To Be Done Years Ahead Of Schedule – CBS New York

NEWARK (CBSNewYork) – Newark is ahead of schedule to replace its utilities that carry water to residents and businesses.

Lincoln Avenue was busy with construction vehicles when Newark City workers finished mending the street where a lead line was being replaced with copper tubing. Local residents were grateful for the progress.

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“Finally something has been done about it … for our families, for our future,” said Sammy Ramos.

Kareem Adeem, the city’s director of sewage and water, is responsible for the lead infrastructure project on the extermination.

“We didn’t put this thing on the street,” he told CBS2’s Meg Baker.

The project should last more than 10 years. The city now says it should be ready in less than three years.

“We currently have 22,315 lead pipes that the city has replaced. We actually touched 28,000 houses in town, and we’re down to the last few hundred houses, they’re all over town, and we’re just trying to check that they don’t have lead, ”Adeem said.

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Adeem says the pandemic has slowed things down a bit. Some people didn’t want to allow access, but now they’re on the home stretch.

“We also had the workforce to do the job,” he said.

City dwellers have been hired and trained for work and, based on their expertise, are now being hired to work in other areas of the state and country.

Senator Bob Menendez calls this a great achievement.

“You have inherited the challenges of lead pipes that ultimately resulted in lead poisoning for children and families, and if you do have lead poisoning, it will affect that child for years to come,” he said.

He says there is a significant amount of money in the federal infrastructure bill for clean drinking water so that others faced with this challenge have the resources to correct the problem.

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Meg Baker of CBS2 contributed to this report.