By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
A dormant Valley Road concrete plant has received approval to be converted to a facility to produce asphalt.
The Planning Board voted Sept. 10 to approve the application by Pierson Properties. Noise considerations were the last issues to be satisfied. As condition of approval, two sets of noise measurements were required: one within 30 days of start of initial operations and again 30 days after expanded the crushing and recycling of old asphalt pavement has begun.
An application to demolish the tower of the concrete plant was submitted a month ago, said Curt Mitchell, facility manager.
Built in the late 1970s, the plant at 340 Valley Road is on 12.8 acres and is about 800 feet east of Auten Road, with some frontage along the Conrail railroad line.
The board agreed to allow a residential building fronting on Auten Road to be converted into a small office to serve the production use.
The board heard from a noise consultant, Norman Dotti of Russell Acoustics, of Kinnelon, whom it hired to review an acoustical study performed by a company hired by Pierson Properties.
The highest overall sound was projected to influence the nearest residence across Valley Road — at a decibel level bumping against noise limits.
Mr. Dotti’s report says the Pierson consultant’s report mentions various pieces of equipment that could be used to deaden noise from equipment, but fails to note the impact of trucks, loaders, Mr. Dotti’s report said.
“Nevertheless, the conclusion is that the site can comply,” he wrote. He added that it must, since noise is regulated by state law.
“An asphalt plant is certainly a known emitter of substantial sound but that doesn’t mean it can’t comply with the applicable limits,” Mr. Dotti’s report says.
The plant would operate seasonally (April through December) from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Winter months would be for maintenance.
Occasionally the proposed plant may want to operate on a Saturday or at night to meet government contracts that require delivery for overnight or weekend paving.
Hot-mix asphalt at 300 degrees Fahrenheit would be loaded onto tankers. The concrete plant infrastructure would be replaced with asphalt manufacturing structure that would be at least 12 feet shorter than the 72-foot-high concrete tower.
The applicant’s acoustical engineer, Jack Zybura of Lewis Goodfriend & Associates, of Whippany, said his calculations — using specifications provided by the company that would sell the equipment — showed the asphalt plant would stay within state noise limits for 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. hours, and be right up against the upper limit for the 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. hours.
The plant would install 15 noise controls, like barriers, sound-muffling wrappers, etc., he said, in order to stay under the night limit of 50 decibels.
As conditions of approval, Pierson agreed to build an earthen berm and plant alternating rows of evergreen trees. Board member Michael Merdinger called combining mechanical and natural sound-deadening measures a “belt and suspenders approach.
Robert Gasiorowski, a Red Bank attorney on record as representing Bloomingdale Drive resident Kyle Day, had said at a previous hearing that he would call experts to testify on noise and planning after the applicant has made its case, but his trip to the Sept. 10 meeting was derailed by flooding from a rainstorm.
