3-Month Delay For County Line Bridge Project

The Board of Supervisors meeting Monday night may have only taken an hour, but we found out some interesting things while we were there.

Perhaps most important we found out there is an ongoing investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection into groundwater contamination by tricholorethylene, or TCE, near the former Cabot Super-Metals site.

And that investigation has thrown a bureaucratic monkey wrench into the plans

The County Line Road Bridge is structurally deficient.

to replace the County Line Road bridge.

Work on that bridge replacement was supposed to begin in the June in the hopes that it could be finished before the Boyertown school buses started rolling in the fall.

But because the potential contamination comes so close to the bridge construction site, everything is on hold until some issues get resolved, said Josh Hagadorn, an engineer with Gilmore and Associates.

The easements the project needs to obtain for the project to move forward are potentially within contamination zone "and we can't get the easements until this is resolved."

He told the Board of Supervisors Monday night he had that day received notice from DEP that a review period had begun, but that takes a minimum of 90 days.

So much for replacing the bridge over the summer.

The complication is that the $475,600 grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission which will pay the majority of the cost, was contingent upon the money being spent by August.

Photo by Evan Brandt

A map of the proposed Donnelly trace project.

But fear not, Hagadorn said the township has already alerted the DVRPC and asked for the money to be pushed back to the next grant cycle.

The other item of interest was the forward motion of the "Donnelly Tract," project which, when constructed, will add 44 homes to the township and 65 acres of open space to an adjacent township park.

That property is called the 40-acre "Libor tract" off Congo Road.

Following the recommendation of the township's planning agency, the supervisors unanimously authorized Township Solicitor Robert Brant to draw up a resolution giving the project preliminary site plan approval and several waivers the developers, Gambone Development Group, had sought.

There are still several stages to go, but the resolution is expected to be adopted at the next meeting in June.

Oh yes, and before I forget, Township Manager Peter Hiryak reports that starting next week, PennDOT will begin milling and paving on Route 100 from Moyer Road in Upper Pottsgrove, up to the County Line Road intersection.

The work will be done at night, from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. and last until June 16.

And with that final tidbit, we present: "the Tweets" and some video from last night's meeting.