Roadwork underway on borough streets
Water main replacement project will disrupt neighborhoods for months
LANSDALE >> Several dozen Lansdale residents heard a detailed rundown Thursday night of the road projects that will have a big impact on their neighborhood over the next year.
Borough officials previewed a series of road paving projects along Cannon Avenue, Hancock Street and several adjacent side streets.
“We are spending a tremendous amount of our money on these projects over the next several years, and it’s important you understand how these projects are going to impact how we get from point A to point B throughout the borough,” said Borough Manager John Ernst.
“We typically don’t embark on a project by ourselves. We try to work with many of our partners, such as the water authority, so that when we tear up a road, we tear up a road together, and do as much as we can at that time,” he said.
Ernst, accompanied by borough engineering consultant Chris Fazio and by Dan Preston, Director of Operations for the North Penn Water Authority, outlined a series of water line and road repaving projects scheduled for the second half of 2019 into 2020.
The largest joint project will see water lines upgraded, then the roads above repaved, on Hancock Street from Oakland Avenue to Church Road, Cherry Street, and the connecting side streets of Cedar Street, Wade Avenue, Cypress Street, Spruce Street, Pennbrook Avenue and Willow Street.
“This is an unprecedented year for us. We’re going to replace over six miles of (water) mains, about 12,000 feet, just in this section where all you folks live,” Preston said.
Work started this week on Hancock, and residents should already have received at least one notification about the water authority’s first stage, to remove old lines running below the roadway and replace them with larger ones. Work on Hancock will likely continue for three to four weeks,
Preston said, and after Hancock is done, the side streets will be tackled, one at a time, over the next four months.
“The water main will go in first. Then, once the main is tested, and ensured that it’s installed properly, and passes all of our water quality tests, we’ll then start the process of renewing your services,” he said.
Residents will be notified by red, then blue tags hanging on their door, that the water authority needs to disconnect their water line for one to two hours to make a new connection, then to schedule appointments to replace water meters currently located indoors with newer models located outside.
“We’re going to keep (the new meter) in the right-ofway, off of the private property, and as close to the curb as possible, in the grass,” Preston said.
“In some cases, it may go into the sidewalk. Any sidewalk or curb that we disturb during the course of the service renewal, we will replace,” he said.
Contractors on site will work with residents to ensure they can maintain access to their houses and driveways during the work hours, Preston and Fazio said, and after the water lines are replaced, a second contractor will begin upgrading the corner ramps on each intersection to meet new ADA standards.
Most work will require closure from roughly 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. each weekday; work later or on Saturdays is possible, but not likely unless poor weather causes delays.
“They can work on Saturdays with special permission, but it takes a lot to get special permission,” Fazio said.
A second contractor will then come through each neighborhood to repair the base of the roadway where necessary, likely running through the end of 2019, and each resident will have until on or around June 30 of 2020 to repair any curbs and sidewalks that don’t meet current codes.
“The goal for doing the base repairs in 2019 is to make the road winter-ready, so that it’s traversable, it holds together,” Fazio said.
“So when the next year comes, it’s drivable and ready to get into the next paving operation,” he said.
Sometime this fall, and again next spring, curbs and sidewalks that don’t meet current codes will be marked, likely with spraypainted Xs, so residents know which need to be upgraded and which can stay as-is.
“Our schedule is telling us we’ll probably be in the neighborhoods sometime after the beginning of school, after Labor Day, to begin marking of curbs and sidewalks. You won’t see anything now,” Ernst said.
Once those marking are made, residents are encouraged to take photos to document the condition before any work is done. Ernst said staff want residents to have as much early notice as possible so they can make group arrangements with contractors to secure lower prices.
“As a municipality, we do not recommend one contractor over another. That’s just not really a good practice,” Ernst said.
“What I can do is put together a list of contractors who have worked in the borough, and then you can then choose from there,” he said, and Fazio added — “They’ll find you.”
Residents can choose not to seek their own fix, Ernst said, and the borough will then have their contractor do the needed fixes. Doing so would cost roughly 30 percent more and result in a lien on the property from the borough. Residents will then be notified again when the milling and paving of their street is to be done.
“The paving, believe it or not, is fairly quick. Day one, they mill, and day two or three they’re paving the majority of the street, maybe plus or minus a day” depending on weather, Fazio said.
A similar road repair and utility upgrade program is also scheduled for N. Cannon Avenue, according to Fazio, but on a faster schedule since no water line upgrades are needed there. On Cannon from Main Street to the railroad tracks near Fifth Street, sanitary sewer line upgrades will begin on Monday, July 22, followed by curb and sidewalk repairs, then a milling and overlay. Paving is expected to be finished by Thanksgiving 2019 there, according to Fazio, with the remaining portion of Cannon north to Eighth Street scheduled for similar work in 2020.
Roughly three dozen residents asked specific questions about their corners and curb lines, and the officials answered when possible, and left their contact information for future queries. Preston said the water authority will post updates about their project on their own website, and Ernst said those will be shared and similarly publicized through borough channels.
“Updates about construction, changes, detours, things like that — we do our best to try to keep everybody updated,” Ernst said.
Ernst also announced a familiar face will help the borough oversee these projects. Former Borough Manager Jake Ziegler, who worked for Lansdale from 1978 until his retirement at the end of 2017, will assist with oversight of construction projects as staff work to replace construction project manager Chris Kunkel, who left in early June for a job with another municipality.
“Jake is just helping us transition between Chris and whoever we end up hiring. He was here when all of these projects started, he knows all of the consultants, it really was a natural fit to bring him back in to help us transition,” Ernst said.