By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Owners who wish to convert a dormant Valley Road concrete plant to produce asphalt will return to the Planning Board on Thursday, July 9.
The board heard testimony June 11 from representatives of Pierson Properties, which would remove a concrete-making structure and replace it with an asphalt plant the applicant says would be smaller and less intense.
It would be built on much of the existing impervious coverage on the 12.8-acre lot at 340 Valley Road.
The asphalt manufacturing infrastructure would be at least 12 feet shorter than the 72-foot-high concrete plant there now, according to the plan. The plant, built in the late 1970s, is about 800 feet east of Auten Road, with some frontage along the Conrail railroad line.
A residential building would be converted into a small office to serve the production facilities. If the board doesn’t want an occupied house on the property to be turned into an office, the house would be removed.
Hot-mix asphalt at 300 degrees Fahrenheit would be loaded onto tankers and trucked away.
On June 11, Pierson’s engineers and experts faced questioning by Robert Gasiorowski, a Red Bank attorney who said he was representing Kyle Day of Bloomingdale Drive.
The plant would operate seasonally (April through December) from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, the application says. The other three months would be given over to maintenance, said Curt Mitchell, facility administrator.
Occasionally the proposed plant may want to operate on a Saturday or at night to comply with government contracts that require evening or weekend delivery for overnight or weekend paving, according to the application.
