PECO electrical work commences in West Chester

>> Work to upgrade the borough’s aging underground electrical system by PECO has started.

There has been some confusion generated about traffic restrictions on Gay Street as a result of what is known as PECO’s Harmony Project. The entirety of Gay Street will not be shut down at the same time during this construction.

PECO’s subcontractors will be closing one block at a time from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday thru Friday starting on March 1st. The first block that will be affected is the 50 block of East Gay Street which is the block between Walnut and High Streets.

Blocks that will be affected during the work: Gay Street (50 E, 50 W, 100 W, 200 W), High Street (50 N & 100 N), Church Street (100 N), Darlington (100 N) and Prescott Alley.

PECO hopes to finish the project by the end of March or beginning of April and resurface streets by late April.

Test, or bore holes, are now being dug to discover what is underground.

“Every time you dig up an old street you never know what you will get,” said John O’Brien, Business Improvement

District Executive Director.

New manholes, transformers and 1.3 miles of underground cable will be installed.

Only at the 200 block of W. Gay Street, due to student activity at St. Agnes Church, will work take place at night. Digging in front of St. Agnes will occur between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Like other work done in the past by PECO, the streets will be patched daily to allow for evening and weekend vehicular traffic.

Contractor Infrasource will stick to the north sides of streets, with both partial and street and sidewalk closures.