LIMERICK PA – Throughout a portion of last night (Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010) and much of today’s pre-dawn hours, while a majority of Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick Township residents slept soundly in their beds, there was restlessness, rumbling, and a nearly constant beep!-beep!-beep! along West Lightcap and Evergreen Roads.

Employees of divisions of Skippack PA-based contractor Haines and Kibblehouse Inc. are putting in noisy overnight hours for what area residents say they have been told will be a period of about two weeks. Heavy, giant-sized equipment is being used to move massive quantities of earth, stone and ground debris to prepare for construction of the first section of The Gateway At Sanatoga shopping center and its anchor tenant, a Costco Wholesale store.

The work must be done sometime. It raises huge clouds of dust, however, and involves trucks that cross West Lightcap in dozens of north-to-south runs over several hours. Ominously, too, a small roadside sign indicates the contractors may occasionally resort to blasting to move particularly stubborn fill. So, possibly to avoid traffic congestion and inconvenience on the primary road into the nearby Philadelphia Premium Outlets, the project proceeds at night, illuminated by portable trailers fitted with large lighting towers.

Surrounded by the deep-throated roar of dump trucks, the clanging and scraping of bucket shovels, and the high-pitched beeping of warning alarms on equipment being shifted into reverse, folks along Evergreen – and particularly on its west side, across from the construction area – report they are getting little rest.

“Many of us are going to loose (sic) a lot of sleep for the next 2 weeks,” one home owner, whose name is known to The Post but is not being used, reported in a Tuesday e-mail. “Residents on Evergreen Rd are having to listen to back-up beepers 24 hours a day from the construction site. This is supposed to last for 2 weeks, Monday thru Thursday. I suppose they are not working on weekends so they don’t disrupt the mall customers.”

• Watch a video, above, of the night-time construction work in progress. It was filmed this morning (Wednesday, Sept. 22) between 3:48 and 4:12 a.m. from several shoulder and center-line positions along Evergreen Road. It also can be seen at The Post’s YouTube account.

While there may be only a handful of privately owned homes immediately near the site where developer O’Neill Property Group of King of Prussia PA is creating its Gateway project, the location is also just 1/8-mile east of the Sanatoga Center and Sanatoga Court health care facilities.

Together they house hundreds of elderly people, some of whom need only assisted living help; others who are seriously ill and cannot care for themselves. Both groups likely could benefit from a good night’s rest. There has been no word from Genesis HealthCare, owner of the facilities, on how – if at all – its clients are being affected by the overnight site work.

Long-time residents say the current activity reminds them of a time, more than 20 years ago, when similar equipment clattered across the hillsides near South Sanatoga Road, during construction of what is now Exelon Corp.’s Limerick Generating Station. The nuclear power facility’s twin cooling stacks, just to the south, loom high above the Gateway site.

During recent weeks, other e-mails to The Post have registered complaints about different concerns regarding the Gateway project. Several expressed worry about traffic jams and accidents they think will result from what is perceived as limited access to both Gateway and the outlets over West Lightcap Road. Two feared their property values, having already fallen in a tight regional economy, will decline further as Gateway ramps up. One thought more crime in the area was possible.

Costco and the first phase of Gateway are due to open in early 2011.

Related (to the Gateway At Sanatoga project):

• Beep!-Beep!, No Sleep For Residents Near Gateway Site
• Pipeline Being Moved At Sanatoga Gateway
• What Gateway At Sanatoga Marketing Says About Us
• Before Demise, Limerick Homes Get Firefighters’ Farewell
• Ground Clearing Begins At Sanatoga “Gateway”
• Developer Sets New Costco Date: Spring 2011
• New Activity Stirs For Gateway At Sanatoga Project
• Costco Approved Without Traffic Improvements (WhatsThe422.com)
• Sanatoga Gateway Endorsed By Limerick Planners (WhatsThe422.com)
• Sanatoga Project Faces Limerick Zoning Decisions
• Sanatoga Shopping Project On Limerick Zoning Agenda
• More Web Searches Seek ‘Sanatoga Springs’
• Board Approves Interchange Mapping Costs
• Sanatoga Springs Promotion In Flux
• Townships Agree To Interchange Planning
• Township Interviews For ‘Bigger Picture’
• Missing Walks Latest Bridge Complaint
• Trying, Trying Again At The Interchange
• Just One Speaker At Sanatoga Springs Hearing
• The Overlooked Users Of Sanatoga Springs
• County Suggests Cooperation On Sanatoga Springs
• Improving The Odds At The Interchange
• More About … Sanatoga Springs (No. 1 In A Series)
• Trial Balloon: An Inter-Municipal Agreement
• Lobbyists Court Lower Pottsgrove
• A New Arrival In “Sanatoga Springs”

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