Excavation & Underground Utilities in Franklin Borough, NJ
JWSR LLC is a local, licensed and insured excavation and utility contractor working in Franklin Borough and across Sussex County. Franklin Borough sits about 3 miles south of our Hamburg yard, roughly 10 minutes out, so we can get a crew and the right machine there without a long wait.
JWSR LLC is a licensed and insured excavation and utility contractor based in Hamburg, New Jersey, about 3 miles from Franklin Borough, working across Sussex County. About 30.4% of Franklin Borough's land area sits inside a public water delivery area, shared between 3 systems, the largest being Franklin Board of Public Works, and the rest is on private wells. About 45.3% of the town is inside a sewer service area, the largest run by Sussex County MUA Upper Wallkill WPCF, and the rest is on septic. We do the underground work either situation calls for: water and sewer service lines, septic, storm drainage, excavation and restoration. Call 862-268-2510 for a free on-site estimate.
Which Franklin? There are four of them
New Jersey has four municipalities called Franklin inside our service area. They are separate governments with their own ordinances and their own permit desks, which is what matters before anybody digs. This page is Franklin Borough, Sussex County, 3 miles south of our Hamburg yard. If that is not the one you meant:
- Franklin Township in Hunterdon County, the township
- Franklin Township in Somerset County, the township
- Franklin Township in Warren County, the township
Drainage and grading in Franklin Borough
Franklin Borough sits in the Wallkill River side of Sussex County, where the water table runs high and low ground floods after a hard rain. Towns along this watershed have a long, documented history of flooding. That is why a good chunk of what we do here is drainage and grading.
When a yard will not drain, a basement keeps taking water, or a lot floods every spring, that is our wheelhouse: French drains, regrading, swales, and moving water away from the house for good. That is a big part of what we do here, but it is far from the only thing. We still handle sewer and water lines, septic, grading, driveways, and emergency digs across town.
Helpful guides: Why grading and drainage matter so much · Sinkholes in our limestone valleys, explained
Sources: The Wallkill River in Sussex County (NJ Skylands) · NJDEP Flood Hazard Areas
Sussex County is lake country and rolling farmland, and plenty of homes out here run on well and septic with older service lines. This is our own backyard, so we know the rocky ground, the frost depth, and the lake-community setups better than most.
In a built-up borough like Franklin Borough, the common jobs are sewer and water lines, underground utilities, and excavation in tighter spots. Whether it is an emergency sewer or water line dig-out, a septic system, a lot that will not drain, or a new driveway, we bring our own equipment and an operator who knows the ground in this part of Sussex County. We show up when we say we will, and we leave your property graded and clean.
Services for homes and businesses in Franklin Borough
Sewer & Water Lines in Franklin Borough
Emergency sewer and water line dig-outs, repairs, and full replacements.
Sewer & Water Lines in Franklin Borough →Utility Construction & Repair in Franklin Borough
Water, sewer, and underground utility installation, trenching, and emergency repair.
Learn more →Excavation in Franklin Borough
Site prep, dig-outs, trenching, and land development for any project.
Learn more →Driveways, Roads & Lots in Franklin Borough
New driveways, road repairs, and parking lot redos built on a base that lasts.
Learn more →Grading & Drainage in Franklin Borough
Fix standing water, regrade your lot, and protect your property from erosion.
Learn more →Retaining Walls in Franklin Borough
Block and boulder retaining walls that hold back soil and look sharp.
Learn more →Some of what we have been building
A look at recent excavation, utility, and site work from around Sussex County and northern New Jersey.
What Franklin Borough was built on
Franklin grew up around zinc. Mining here consolidated under the New Jersey Zinc Company in 1897, and the population went from about 500 that year to roughly 3,000 by 1913, the year the borough separated from Hardyston. The ore body is famous among geologists for holding more than 150 minerals.
In a town built around an orebody and its works, ground conditions vary hard from street to street. Made ground, mine spoil and old industrial fill all turn up, so what a crew hits two streets over is a poor guide to any given lot.
Historical detail: Borough incorporation 1913; New Jersey Zinc Company consolidation 1897.
What tends to be in the ground in Franklin Borough
Most of Franklin Borough went up before 1940, across roughly 2,359 housing units.
Close to 36% of it predates 1940. At that age laterals are usually vitrified clay, which takes roots at every joint, and water services are often galvanized steel that scales shut from the inside until pressure falls off.
Roughly 31% dates to the 1940s through early 1970s. That is the Orangeburg window, and pipe from it is past the age where it can be counted on.
Housing-age figures: US Census American Community Survey 2019–2023 5-year estimates, table B25034. Pipe service lives are documented industry figures. What is actually under any one property varies, so we confirm it on site before we quote a replacement.
Franklin Borough is split between public water and private wells
About 30.4% of Franklin Borough’s land area sits inside a public water purveyor’s delivery area, shared between 3 different systems. The largest is Franklin Board of Public Works, then Hillside Estates at Franklin. Outside those pockets most properties are on a well, sometimes their own and sometimes one shared with neighbors, and the three situations are different jobs with different rules. Which one you are in is the first thing to settle, and your bill settles it faster than any map.
What replacing a water service involves, and who supplies water in every town we cover.
Source: NJDEP Purveyor Service Areas of New Jersey, edition 2025-07-03, measured against US Census municipal boundaries. NJDEP maps actual delivery areas for public community systems, meaning fifteen or more year-round connections; smaller shared and association systems are real but do not appear. Percentages are share of land area, not share of homes, and a state file can lag a change of ownership. The name on your bill beats any map, including this one.
The part that changes the job here
the Franklin Borough Water & Sewer Department
Franklin names one line for watermain leaks, sewer line blockages, connections and meter questions, and a different one for billing. Calling the billing office about water in the ground is a wasted call, and it is an easy mistake to make from the website.
Franklin Borough is part sewered, part septic
About 45.3% of Franklin Borough’s land area falls inside a mapped sewer service area, treated at Sussex County MUA Upper Wallkill WPCF. A service area is where sewer is planned and permitted, not a promise that a main runs past your house, so the only way to settle it for one address is to look. Outside it, septic.
Sewer connections, laterals and septic work are all things we do, and which one you need is usually settled in one phone call. Sewer and water line work.
Source: NJDEP Sewer Service Areas, read 2026-09-08, measured against US Census municipal boundaries. Percentages are share of land area, not share of homes. Most polygons in this layer are small on-site treatment works for a single school, campground or business, so read the percentages rather than the count.
Franklin Borough sits in one watershed, at 4.8 acres per septic system
First, what this is not: it is not a minimum lot size, and it does not mean a house here needs acres of land to get a septic. Plenty of working systems in Franklin Borough sit on far less. It is the figure the state uses to judge how many more systems the ground can absorb before groundwater nitrate becomes a problem, and it matters most if you are subdividing.
- 4.8 acres per system in the Wallkill River, above the road to Martins watershed, and Franklin Borough’s zoning here already runs ahead of it, 134 units against 130 allowed
Watersheds do not follow town lines, which is why two neighbors on one road can fall either side of a number. The whole county, watershed by watershed.
Sussex County Wastewater Management Plan, December 2017, Table 9. Zoning changes and DEP updates its model, so this is the last published position rather than a ruling on any property. Your town’s zoning office and the county Health Department are the ones that decide.
If you find water surfacing in Franklin Borough, call this first
Before you call us, get the water shut off. A leaking service line washes ground out from under whatever sits above it and keeps running until somebody turns the curb valve.
In Franklin Borough that is Franklin Borough Water & Sewer Department, on 973-827-7060.
The borough names this line for exactly this: water and sewer connections, watermain leaks, sewer line blockages and meter questions. Billing is a different number.
Once the water is off, the repair is ours. What replacing a water service involves, or what the first hour of a break looks like.
Read off Franklin Borough Water & Sewer Department's own published page and re-checked periodically. If your bill carries a different name, that name is the one with your curb key. Much of New Jersey is served by New Jersey American Water, 1-800-272-1325, 24 hours.
Working in Franklin Borough
How fast can you get to Franklin Borough?
Franklin Borough is roughly 10 minutes from our Hamburg base, so we can usually be out for an estimate quickly, and for a sewer or water line emergency we start moving right away, day or night.
Do you handle sewer and water line work in Franklin Borough?
Yes. Sewer and water line repair and replacement is core work for us in built-up parts of Sussex County like Franklin Borough, including tight-access digs and emergency line breaks. Many homes here built between 1945 and 1972 still have Orangeburg sewer laterals, a wood pulp and tar pipe that fails with age, and replacing those laterals is routine work for us.
Are you licensed and insured to work in Sussex County?
Yes. JWSR LLC is a licensed and insured New Jersey contractor, and we work across Sussex County and six other counties. We pull the permits, mark out, and do it by the book.
We also serve these towns near Franklin Borough
Need excavation in Franklin Borough?
Free on-site estimates and 24/7 emergency service, about 10 minutes from our Hamburg yard. Call 862-268-2510.
Call 862-268-2510