Limerick threatens to sue, contractor returns to repair roads

LIMERICK — Following the decision of the township’s board of supervisors to pursue legal action against a New Jersey pavement company, it appears the contractor returned to repair deficiencies in the roads sealed last year.

Roads in several areas of the township started peeling a few months after the oil and chip road surfacing was finished by the Dosch King Co.out of Whippany, N.J.

According to the township, this latest threat of legal action may get the roads completely fixed.

“The contractor mobilized and started talking to us again,” said Limerick Township Manager Dan Kerr. “(Monday), they started to come in and put in a new layer (on the roads).”

Several months ago, the possibility of forcing legal action was discussed regarding the company but the sides were scheduled to meet and discuss the issue.

However, nothing productive came of that, according to Kerr.

“We were not getting satisfactory action,” he said.

A possible plan to fix the roads had been discussed.

“Dosch King was going to put down an alternate process but (they) reneged on that,” Kerr said.

As such, the Limerick Board of Supervisors voted at its June 4 meeting to go after the maintenance bond tied to the project and Dosch King.

The maintenance bond is an amount of money secured for any public works project to protect against any faults over a period of time.

Overall, at the time of the bidding, the project’s price tag stood at $70,650.92.

In an interview with The Mercury in April, Dosch King’s President David King disputed the township’s claim that inferior materials or workmanship resulted in the peeling.

He said that the bid for the project came out later in the season, June, than they typically want the project and that this winter’s weather could have played a factor.

“Our product is very susceptible to plows and heavier traffic,” he said.