Politics & Government
Conshy Hits Fayette Street Construction Snag, PennDOT Pain
Borough says it's received surprising, expensive requirements from PennDOT.
Conshohocken borough officials thought they had lucked out, and were in for a headache-free repaving of Fayette Street. It turns out they just avoided one pothole to fall into another — one that could potentially cost upwards of $350,000 to fix.
As previously reported by Patch, the borough in April when PennDOT announced they would be repaving Fayette Street — after PECO had already announced plans to perform utility installation along the corridor. Borough council recalled past instances where one entity completed work just to have another tear it back up, prolonging headaches for government, residents and travelers alike.
At the time, the borough was having trouble reaching both parties to coordinate efforts, but PECO came through in June with an announcement that it would accelerate its plans to finish work before PennDOT's October repaving deadline. PECO would install utilities, and PennDOT would pave over. Crisis averted.
Unfortunately, a new problem has presented itself, in the form of crosswalks and handicapped ramps. According to discussions by borough council at a Wednesday workshop meeting, PennDOT has stated that they won't repave a number of crosswalks along Fayette Street unless the borough rebuilds the handicapped ramps that lead on to them from the sidewalk.
Borough staff said that this requirement was not articulated in original agreements.
"They should have let us know about this when they [contracted] the project, and apparently that never happened," said Christine Stetler, community development officer for the borough.
The problem lies with meeting government regulations. Although the ramps are relatively new, handicap accessibility compliance changes on an almost yearly basis, officials said. That makes PennDOT reluctant to rebuild crosswalks when the ramps they connect to aren't up to the latest standards.
Borough staff said they reached out to PennDOT with questions about how out of compliance the current ramps are, and what would occur if they chose not to install new ones, but have not received a satisfactory answer.
"We do not know how far off those particular curbs' ramps are….and their response to our letter was simply [to update] us on what they did," Stetler said.
One thing is certain: if Fayette Street is repaved with the exception of the crosswalks, motorists could be in for a few bumps on a brand new road. Staff stated they believe PennDOT will simply pave to the crosswalks, lift up, and continue on the other side.
"You're going to have a nice new pavement that's going to have these defects in it right off the bat, just to meet these crosswalks that PennDOT is not going to deal with," said Owen Hyne, a consulting engineer.
All in all, the borough estimates that there are approximately $350,000 in improvements that they say should have been included in the repaving contract. In addition, many of the crosswalks are only four to six years into a typical eight year lifetime expectancy, creating costs the borough did not anticipate.
Council discussed the diplomatic possibility of talking with state representatives to shake loose a response from PennDOT, but also directed borough solicitor Mike Savona to look into what legal options might be available should those efforts prove fruitless.
One thing that is clear however, is that Conshohocken is working against the clock. PennDOT has set a deadline to have the repaving completed by October.
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