Pennsauken Twp. Dept. of Public Works

06/02/2026

This Saturday, June 6th at Lindenwold, Charles J. Depalma Highway Complex

05/24/2026

05/23/2026

As we close out National Public Works Week 2026, we highlight two seasonal operations that most Pennsauken residents recognize when thinking of Public Works.

Leaf Collection Season runs November and December where our crews collect curbside leaf piles throughout Pennsauken. Although residents can place bagged/canned leaves out each week of the year through yard debris collection, in the height of the season, there are sections of Pennsauken that produce a tremendous amount of leaves which renders bagging impractical. Our Compost Facility on Park Avenue operates under a NJ-DEP permit, allowing up to 10,000 cubic yards of leaves to be composted. After a year of processing, the matured compost material is available year-round to our residents at the parking lot of Pennsauken’s Municipal Pool on River Road.

Snow plowing is a traditional function of Public Works Departments in the Northeastern United States. Depending on the timing of the storm, it takes approximately 6-8 hours for our team to make a single pass through Pennsauken. That’s what it takes to go down each road. More accumulation will require additional passes, making for a long shift! With over 20 plow trucks on the roads, their goal is to clear the streets “curb-to-curb” in order to ensure that emergency vehicles can access all streets.

We recently expanded our winter toolset to include the ability to apply road brine to the roads and even manufacture our own brine. This is applied in advance of the snowstorm to fight the snow from the ground-up.

This Memorial Day weekend, we remember those that have died serving our great country so that we may be able to enjoy the “quality of life” services through parks, athletic fields and playgrounds, sanitary collection of garbage, emergency vehicle response and road maintenance. Sometimes we lose sight of the small things in life that are incredibly important.

In today’s high-speed world of rushing through our work and moving on, it’s all too easy to forget the simple gesture of a “Thank You.” We thank our residents for the opportunity to serve a community all Public Works employees call home. Our goal at Pennsauken DPW is to provide the best services for our residents and businesses to keep Pennsauken a great place to live, work and play. With your help, we look forward to continuing this mission, achieving quality and sustainable services that we all can be proud of. We are definitely rooted in service and powered by community!

05/22/2026

Today, we celebrate the work of the Fleet Maintenance Division of Pennsauken DPW.

This shop is comprised of a four-man crew of mechanics that maintain and repair all of the Township’s vehicles including the various large equipment of DPW, Ambulances, Fire trucks and support vehicles as well as all Police vehicles. With over 130 pieces of equipment to keep in tip-top shape for immediate dispatching, these guys do an incredible job. When it comes to coordinating with the Pennsauken Police Department, with various shifts and vehicles being used around the clock, the PD’s Fleet Manager is second to none. Just ask him!

This division also keeps an eye on the fuel island that services all Township vehicles, the vehicles of Merchantville Borough, the Pennsauken Sewerage Authority and the Merchantville-Pennsauken Water Commission. Our department orders over 190,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline and over 72,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year!

Having a dependable shop is not common across all municipalities. Some towns are too small for repairs to be economically made in-house. Pennsauken is right-sized and the matching skill level of this particular team makes important repairs to emergency vehicles quickly and accurately, keeping a high public safety bar set for our residents. When DPW trucks near the end of their lifespan, this shop has taken a few projects recently to repurpose them. Most notable is the recent Road Brine program that DPW put in place. This crew retrofitted a dump truck to become an oversized “stake body” truck that can hold the massive 900-gallon brine tanks and application system. Through this entire team’s work, we can continue to capitalize on vehicles that have a bit more life in them.

New for 2025, we were able to send two of our mechanics to Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton Wisconsin to complete Emergency Vehicle Technician certifications. This training exposed staff to some of the more intricate components of fire apparatus, identifying preventative maintenance strategies to extend the useful life of our equipment.

Check back tomorrow for our next segment!

05/22/2026

Today, as part of our daily post for National Public Works Week 2026, we highlight the Utility Division of Pennsauken DPW.
To use a baseball analogy, this team bats in the “clean-up” position.

The odd jobs that come in at the last minute almost always are handled by this crew. In addition, they provide maintenance and repairs to nearly 1,100 storm water inlets and over a dozen storm water retention basins throughout the year. Part of this task is to maintain water flow of the various creeks in Pennsauken for storm water to run off of the local roads and back to the regional bodies of water. They are also relied upon to clean-up vacant homes during our “Clean-and-Lien” process and take the lead on cutting overgrown grass at vacant properties.

This crew is responsible for tending to our Westfield Avenue business district, the various municipal parking lots along it and Liberty Park at the corner of Merchantville Avenue and Westfield Avenue.

During the pandemic, DPW assumed the responsibility for traffic maintenance throughout Pennsauken as well. This program was expanded to include crosswalk striping, in addition to taking inventory of all local traffic signs and street signs.

In 2025, this crew took the lead on the revitalization of a parking lot at the corner of Merchantville Ave and Jefferson Avenue, removing decades of overgrowth and re-sealing the parking surface and re-striping the parking lot.

While the Tree Crew team is our arial holiday decoration experts, the Utility Division takes care of the groundwork at the Municipal Building’s display during the holiday season.

Another responsibility of this crew is to maintain the DPW complex and make improvements using some construction skillsets of these team members. Caring for these public buildings ensures that they will continue to serve this Department’s needs for years to come.

Check back tomorrow for our next segment!

05/20/2026

As part of our daily post for National Public Works Week 2026, we highlight the Roads & Tree Division.

Our Roads Division is comprised of a four-man crew. They are responsible for the general repair and maintenance of 156 lane miles of Pennsauken-owned roads in the township. They search these roads for potholes while addressing those reported by our residents. This includes over 150 potholes reported and repaired from residents each year. The amount of asphalt used each year clocks-in around 271 tons of asphalt.

This Division works closely with the Township Engineer, John Doyle, also performing larger repair jobs where a square patch of asphalt will be cut-out to repair depressions, alligator cracking and other degrading issues associated with asphalt roadways. Due to their asphalt and excavating skills, we’ve deployed this crew to assist in replacing a section of sewer pipe for the Pennsauken Country Club as well as the Elm Avenue snack stand sewer pipe. Offsetting major contracting costs for the Township is definitely a point of pride for this crew. A recent project that they are proud of is the replacement of the asphalt under the bleachers and around the snack stand at the Walt Nicgorski baseball field.

Did you know that the average production temperature of hot mix asphalt is 325 degrees Fahrenheit? When this crew retrieves this material in a special “hot box” trailer, which keeps the asphalt at a working temperature, they are shoveling and raking asphalt that is still in excess of 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Gloves are definitely a must! Minimum air temperature for asphalt paving is 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which affects our ability to make repairs during the winter months. This is why you may see a temporary patch to make the roadway safe until temperatures climb a bit. These team members conduct the second most hazardous work of DPW: working in the roadway. When you see signage and cones, please slow down when driving near their work zone.

Our Tree Crew is comprised of two tree trimmers and one loader operator. They remove and dispose of about 400 tons of tree debris every year through their operations clearing dead, hazardous trees and regular trimming. This is the most hazardous work that is performed by DPW due to the weight of tree branches and trunks, coupled with the unpredictability of how diseased or rotted a particular tree is. We have seen massive 80+ year old oak trees, full of leaves and that looks healthy fall over during a windstorm. The result of one particular location was a 20-inch hole in the center of the trunk. If left unaddressed, this tree could have caused major property damage, or worse.

Residential curbside trees that meet the curbside tree removal program qualifications are removed by this crew throughout the year. This crew also handles preparing, installing and removing the various holiday decorations around the Township, plus anything a bucket truck is needed for. They also work at removing hazardous trees at the Pennsauken Country Club.

Check back tomorrow for our next segment!

05/19/2026

Today, as part of our daily post for National Public Works Week 2026, we highlight the Parks Division.

Our Parks Division is made up of five team members. They maintain over 115 acres of parks, playgrounds and athletic fields within Pennsauken. In the winter and spring before the summer cutting season, this crew will prepare various playgrounds with new certified playground mulch and cleaning up the twigs and debris from over the winter.

They also prepare for the arrival of new play equipment that our children will enjoy. In the late fall, this crew joins the rest of our staff in collecting curbside piles of leaves from our various Pennsauken neighborhoods and switches into winter operations shortly after that. With the expansion of MPLL and other organizations renting various fields in town, this crew coordinates with the Township’s Parks & Recreation Department to groom the baseball and softball infields as well as the turf football field.

Prior to each major tournament, College showcase or Township event, this crew goes over each location with a fine-tooth comb to ensure the space can be enjoyed by players and spectators alike.

While cutting grass seems like a simple enough task, keeping athletic fields safe for play is no joke. Changing conditions and increased use of these fields require inspections and remediation for any deficiencies found.

Check back tomorrow for our next segment!

05/18/2026

This week marks “National Public Works Week,” across the United States. Since 1960, the American Public Works Association (APWA) has sponsored National Public Works Week to energize and educate the public on the importance of public works in their daily lives. Public Works includes those who manage water, sewer, public transportation, and refuse (garbage) removal systems as well as those responsible for maintaining public buildings and grounds.

Each year, the American Public Works Association (APWA) chooses a theme. This year’s theme is “Rooted in Service, Powered by Community” and reminds us that public works professionals are motivated to serve the communities that they love and that power them to always do their best. Whether serving as first responders during weather events, providing regular waste pickup, or making roads and sidewalks passable after a winter weather event, public works puts service at the forefront of their community.

Each day this week, we will highlight the various functions of Pennsauken’s very own Public Works Department. The collection of this data has been a humbling experience, quantifying our otherwise daily operations. I hope that it reminds our fellow residents, and even our own team members, that our mission has great purpose and value, here in Pennsauken.

Pennsauken’s DPW Complex is located at 6725 Wayne Avenue, at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Clement Avenue. This operation is made up of thirty-two employees. Our office receives over 5,700 phone calls, 1,000 initial emails and 800 walk-ins per year. Over 800 recycling cans are distributed each year, as well. Addressing each individual resident’s concern and responding accordingly surely helps the day go by quickly!

We’re going to kick off our daily Division spotlights with our Sanitation Division.

05/13/2026

This Saturday, May 16th at Atco Parking Area

05/11/2026

Seaside Waste/Interstate Waste is reporting that a small section of today’s (Monday’s) Recycling collection route will not be collected until tomorrow (Tuesday 5/12), due to mechanical issues.

Affected residents are asked to keep their recycling out at the curb and it will be collected first thing tomorrow.

Tuesday’s collection route is unaffected and on-schedule.