3rd Street Bridge/Dam Project on Hold Until January

gave a status update on the progress of the 3rd Street Dam/Bridge project at its meeting Thursday night and determined no design decisions will be made until the newly elected council is appointed in January.

Council President Pete Alyanakian said members of council met with their legal counsel to discuss any

The public has expressed interest in several different designs for the project,

Alyanakian said legal counsel advised them that they would need to go back to the two other parties involved, the county and Broomall's Lake County Club, and have them agree on a new design before the project could move forward.

The borough, county and Broomall's Lake entered into a It was agreed upon then that the borough owns the roadway over the dam and the county and Broomall's Lake own the dam. The borough is responsible for the repairs of the bridge but going forward the county and Broomall's Lake are responsible for the dam maintenance.

The borough is also currently researching to determine if the 20 percent of grant money they have received from Senator Dominic Pileggi for the project can be applied to a different dam/bridge design.

"We’re going to research to see if that 20 percent could apply to whatever option. We’re going to work with the senator’s office on that. I don’t think they’ve had this request before so it’s going to take some digging to get to the bottom of whether or not those funds could apply to any type of changes," Alyanakian said.

Members of council and the project engineers also met with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to determine if they will continue to fund the project if an alternate design is chosen.

Alyanakian said they confirmed during that meeting that PennDOT is willing to pay 80 percent of anything the borough decides to do there, as long as the project is moving forward.

"So if we decide to breach it, if we decide to build a greenway with the dam, if we decide to build a dam with a roadway," Alyanakian said. "As long as the project is moving forward, they indicated that whatever the borough wants to do, they are willing to pay 80 percent of the cost. That means that if council decides on other options and Broomall's and the county agree to those options then PennDOT will be willing to pay for the design changes."

He said the current design is about 50 to 60 percent completed and has been on hold since July when the first round of public hearings began.

"No design work has been done on the project since July," Alyanakian said. "Because they’ve been waiting for guidance from the borough."

He said the council is looking at all design suggestions from the public as well as the Friends of Glen Providence Park, a newly formed group which has researched and complied information regarding alternatives and possible loopholes to the current design proposal.

Alyanakian said council will appoint a Citizens Advisory Committee for the project but has agreed to wait until the newly elected council members are appointed in January.

"It’s unanimous and the 3rd Street Committee feels the CAC should be appointed by the new council and that’s why you’re probably seeing a slower pace here than you’d probably hope. But because there is really no design going on right now and because there is a lot of work to do to understand the options that are available, I think it’s best that the next council appoints the members to the CAC," he said. 

Alyanakian said the current council will gather as much information for the new council so they’ll have all the options open to them.

"That way, starting in January, they’ll be much more able to get going without having to do a lot of the background, hopefully all of the background work will be done. They’ll have all the information from the state in terms of the 20 percent funding. We’ll know whether or not a dam can be breached, we have our engineers actually doing some work on that to see if it is an option, and then of course the greenway," Alyanakian said. "So when that group does form in January, they’ll have at least a road map to work from and not have to wait for additional information."

The project is in a bit of a holding pattern until January, he said.

To read related stories from this Media Borough Council meeting, and