High Street water line project begins

Construction to cost at least $4 million, last 12-18 months

POTTSTOWN >> The 800 block of High Street was not a quiet place Wednesday morning.

Backhoes scraped and thumped, concrete slabs boomed as they dropped into beeping dump trucks in reverse and a foot-wide metal saws screamed as it spewed a shower of sparks for every piece of old steel rebar it cut.

The construction zone is the center of High Street, with eastbound and westbound traffic just squeezing by on each side.

And the work won’t be done any time soon.

It’s all part of a 12- to 18-month project contracted to Doli Construction to replace water mains in the middle of High Street.

Pottstown Public Works Director Doug Yerger said the project, with an estimated cost between $4 million and $5 million, is part of the Pottstown Borough Authority’s five-year capital plan.

“We design one year, we execute the next. Right now, we’re executing,” said Yerger.

Yerger said the project now underway on High Street will install a new 12inch water line from Eden Street to Warren Street, and a 20-inch from Warren Street to Washington Street.

The pipe being replaced was installed in 1917, making in 99 years old. There is a smaller 10-inch water line, on the south side of High Street, that was installed in 1901, “but that one isn’t giving us any problems,” said Yerger.

Working through the winter won’t be a problem, said Yerger. “You can dig a trench any time of the year.”

Yerger said he is pleased with the authority’s approach to major projects now — not only planning five years out, but also structuring the finances to enable the project to be undertaken without borrowing money.

“In the end that saves a lot of money, and when 2021 comes, we won’t have any more debt,” he said.

Currently, servicing debt consumes $3 million of the sewer budget and $2 million of the water budget — annual revenues which can be directed to directed to capital budgets once the debt is retired.

In the meantime, however, it looks like water rates will go up for the first time in five years and sewer rates for the first time in two years by a combined 8 percent in July.

The authority board adopted the $6.56 million water budget on Oct. 18 and has recommended the to borough council that it adopt the $9.39 million sewer budget.

The impact of the hikes, if enacted in full, would take the average quarter water/sewer bill from $165 to $178, according to Utilities Administrator Robert Plenderleith.

An average customer uses 7,500 gallons of water per quarter.

The increase works out to about $6 more per quarter for the average water bill and $7 for the average sewer bill, Plenderleith said.

Yerger said the upcoming work has both water and sewer pipe replacement involved.

He said after a trench is filled it has to settle for 30 days before it can be paved over. Temporary paving will follow the completion of the water lines and the final paving down the center of the street will not occur until next spring.