Pottstown to see $7 million in infrastructure work this summer

POTTSTOWN — If you think it’s hard getting around town these days because there seems to be roadwork everywhere, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Most of the road work being done presently in the borough is by PECO installing new gas lines and updating electrical infrastructure, but the borough is about to get into the act in a major way, Borough Manager Justin Keller announced at the July 8 council meeting.

Here is a quick look at some of the projects that, taken together, account for an investment of more than $7 million in the borough’s infrastructure.

• The complete milling of Mervine Street between North Washington and North Adams streets is underway as part of the joint paving project being undertaken with Upper Pottsgrove Township, which owns half the road.

• A contractor for the Pottstown Borough Authority has begun rode “coring” as part of a project to replace 200 lead water laterals to homes; a $2.8 million project aimed at reducing lead in tap water in many of Pottstown’s older homes.

• The Borough Authority is set to begin a project to replace 1,000 feet of aging water lines and 1,000 feet of aging sewer lines, as well as repaving one mile of roadway, at a cost of $1.7 million.

• The borough-wide summer paving project is set to re-pave 2.7 miles of borough roadway, a project valued at $600,000.

• Also being repaved is a portion of the taxi-way at the Pottstown Municipal Airport. Valued at $378,000, when finished it will complete the re-paving of all flight surfaces at the airport, Keller said.

• Underground, a long-awaited repair to a stormwater arch beneath 1200 E. High St. will get underway, an $800,000 project. It collapsed during a heavy rain in August 2018 and it has taken this long for the borough to assemble the grant funding to undertake the project without using local tax funds.

• And next month, borough officials will cut the ribbon on the new pedestrian bridge in Memorial Park between the main section of the park and Veteran’s Island, a $400,000 project.

“This will be one of the busiest seasons in recent memory,” Keller told the council. “This is a significant achievement and a testament to all of the hard work put in to make these projects happen.”

Originally Published: July 14, 2024 at 6:30 a.m.