LIMERICK PA – The racket that resulted from earth-moving equipment working overnight to improve a site bordered by Evergreen and West Lightcap Roads in Limerick (PA) Township, where a new Costco store and the first section of the Gateway At Sanatoga shopping center are being built, has been ratcheted down.
A large dump truck clatters north Wednesday (Sept. 22, 2010) at 4 a.m. across West Lightcap Road at the Gateway At Sanatoga site in Limerick.
Site contractor Haines and Kibblehouse Inc. has assured the township that beginning next week it will work only between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m., according to Limerick Manager Daniel Kerr, who in an e-mail Thursday (Sept. 24, 2010) reported residents in the affected area were “telling us this will be acceptable.”
Several nights of noise, which residents complained was robbing them of much-needed sleep, will officially end tonight (Friday, Sept. 25) at 6. Company crews won’t start up again until Monday (Sept. 27), spokesman Anthony Jeremias told at least one home owner, and then will limit their weekday work to within the daytime hours only.
Apparently no work is being scheduled during the weekend to ensure easier traffic flow for shoppers at the adjacent Philadelphia Premium Outlets.
Action on the agreement was prompted in part by Sanatoga Fire Company President Donald Woodley Jr., who lives at 209 Evergreen Rd. in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, just west of the construction site. He sent an e-mail to Kerr on Thursday, suggesting the site work seemed to violate Limerick ordinances that regulate construction activity. Its law limits such work to between 6:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays, Woodley noted.
Kerr didn’t disagree. “We were surprised when (Haines and Kibblehouse) started this week with overnight operations,” the manager explained to The Post, also by e-mail. “We have been pushing the contractor to resolve the issues with the residents so we don’t have to resort to legal means,” Kerr added.
Woodley told Kerr that township Code Enforcement Officer Matt Hunter first said Haines and Kibblehouse was to have offered affected residents the opportunity to stay in a hotel at no cost, and would power-wash their homes once the overnight work was completed. “That is not the solution to the problem,” Woodley wrote. Residents’ homes “are lit up like a football field at night by the construction lights,” he said, “and the sound from the back up alarms is piercing throughout the night, disrupting our sleep.”
Unless the contractor’s work received written permission from the municipality, Woodley’s e-mail to Kerr continued, “these night-time activities need to be stopped by the officials of Limerick Township.”
The work by Haines and Kibblehouse is being performed on behalf of Gateway At Sanatoga developer O’Neill Properties Group of King of Prussia PA. It is not known how, if at all, the change in the site work schedule would affect its construction timetable. A Costco Wholesale store that is the first section’s prime tenant is due to open next spring.
Kerr acknowledged the contractor had asked for the ability to work overnight “based on the scale of the soil which needed to be moved.” There were “valid reasons for the request,” he said. Permission to proceed was never granted, however, according to Kerr. “We put forth issues which needed to be resolved before we OK’d,” he wrote.
Related (to the Gateway At Sanatoga project):
- Contractor Agrees To End Night Work At Sanatoga Gateway
- Sanatoga Gateway’s Overnight Noise Near An End
- 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”
Sign up to get The Sanatoga Post delivered free daily by e-mail. Share this article.
See our galleries for photos that appear in The Post. Got news for us? E-mail The Post.
Find The Posts on Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Technorati, Flickr, YouTube, and RSS
Thanks Donald. We all appreciate your involvement in this matter. Hopefully they will still pressure wash our homes…& possibly give us coupons for car washes too!
I am all for the all night work. This will assure the project is completed sooner then later.
It never bothered us.
Thanks for letting me know. I must, however, report that you’re in the minority. I’ve heard from a significant number of people that it bothered a lot.
Joe:
Don’t you think it is interesting that #209 and the rest of the people on Evergreen are more concerned about mounds of dirt then what will be hitting them down the road?
The properties will be virtually worthless when the project is complete. The grounds of the development will encroach upon the properties. The front yards will be minimized due to the townships widening of Evergreen. That retaining area on the O Neill map will drop more run-off through the creek then it is able to handle.
The folks should take a ride up to the Coventry Mall and see what happened to the homes on the opposite side of 724. Their front lawns were removed and now they can’t give their homes away. They can’t have the kids outside either because they are virtually playing on a highway.
O Neill and the Township said they would work with people up there and I guess a powerwash here and there is what they are offering.
My parents have been there for 30 years and they aren’t the type to storm City Hall if you get my drift.
The Post’s first story about the overnight work mentioned in its later paragraphs worries some residents along Evergreen Road have about the value of their properties. I would not assume it’s only the dirt and work hours that concern those involved in complaints to Limerick. It’s just those issues concern them NOW.
What, if anything, are you suggesting as a solution? It’s doubtful the project will be stopped; that horse has already left the barn. So your alternative is…?
I beleive O Neill Properties should approach the homeowners and offer to buy them out. O Neill and Mr. Tornetta have purchased parcels and homes up there but to date most of those have to do with what is now being constructed, or what is emminent.
Up the road a little ways, next to Turkey Hill, Mr. Tornetta purchased a nice parcel at a great rate , piled up dirt, filled it in and now has listed that for sale. Nice move, he understands this, the people on Evergreen do not.
So, if you are needed you save some value and can relocate. However, what happens when they finish these projects and your home is surrounded and they tree you in, or something. When you go to move no one wants your home and you lose what may be the only lot of equity you have.
Most of the people along Evergreen are uninformed, I believe, when it comes to what is happening. Limerick’s response is “well, we post these things on the agenda and mail notices to the residents, so if they dont show up and voice their opinion we cant read their minds’.
The residents dont understand that the road will be widened to four lanes with two of the lanes being constructed on the Limerick side so not to involve Lower Pottsgrove.
One resident has a serious disability and what is in store there?
It is pocket change to these developers to give the homeowners fair value.