The Sanatoga Post

SANATOGA PA – The effort to rebuild entrance and exit ramps for U.S. Route 422 at the Armand Hammer Boulevard interchange in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township will – much like traveling 422 itself during rush hours – take longer than expected, the Board of Commissioners learned last week.

The former Occidental property is now being marketed as the TriCounty Business Park

At fault? “The red tape that sometimes gets involved in dealing with a big corporation,” Chad Camburn of Bursich Associates, the township’s engineering firm, reported to board members during their Oct. 3 (2011) meeting.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has spent most of this year buying properties it needs to begin what is called “Section M1A of the Pottstown Bypass Improvement Project.” The additional land will be used to rebuild 422 bridges spanning the Schuylkill River between Lower Pottsgrove and North Coventry townships, and ramps around the nearby interchanges at Armand Hammer and Route 724.

Lower Pottsgrove and the borough of Pottstown also have quietly discussed the potential of changes to the Armand Hammer street scape, intended to coincide with PennDOT’s renovations, that would make the boulevard a more inviting gateway to the east side of Pottstown.

Bidding materials seeking contractors for the project were scheduled to have been released by December. That won’t happen now, Camburn said, due to lingering “right of way issues” between PennDOT and Occidental Chemical Corp., which through subsidiaries owns a substantial portion of property on the north side of the interchange.

It’s not as if OxyChem, as the company is often called, is trying to block the project; it isn’t, Camburn assured board members. But there is more paperwork involved, and more corporate reviews and assessments to be conducted before all parties involved sign the necessary agreements of sale. For that reason, PennDOT has postponed the bidding until early next year, he said.

Commissioners thanked Camburn for, but had no comment on, the news.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Oct. 3):

• Red Tape Stalls Repairs At 422 And Armand Hammer
• Townships Talk About Coordinating Fun And Games
• Local Fire Crews In Schools This Week, Teaching Safety
• Township Bends To Give Garbage Bidders Choices
• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Police Detail At Limerick Hearings Cost $1,468
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit

Core boring

KING OF PRUSSIA PA – Lane restrictions are scheduled this week though Friday (Sept. 28, 2011) on eastbound and westbound U.S. Route 422 between the First Avenue and Oaks exits in Upper Merion, Lower Providence, West Norriton and Upper Providence (PA) townships, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) said. Crews will be conducting core borings in the area, it added.

Certain lanes along the Montgomery County stretch of highway will be closed daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Motorists are advised to allow extra time when traveling on this section of the highway, as backups may occur.

Photo from Google Images

WORK CREWS RETURNED TO FINISH HIGHWAYS – Employees of American Infrastructure and the Allan A. Myers Inc. paving companies returned to Sanatoga on Friday night (Sept. 9, 2011) with heavy equipment and trucks filled with hot asphalt, and resumed their restoration of surfaces on North Sanatoga and Bliem roads, two state-owned highways in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township that were first milled two weeks ago. Company schedules and inclement weather delayed earlier completion of the job. Crews began their work on North Sanatoga Road near North Pleasant View at about 8 p.m., brightening up the night with balloon lights like that on a paver (above) and powerful headlights of a roller (below). Steam billowed from the molten-then-compacted combination of gravel and oils that turned the road into smooth riding for motorists.

The Post sells copies of its photos. See its galleries here.

POTTSTOWN PA – Attention, Mr. and Mrs. Unknown. Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is preparing to take your property in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township under an eminent domain proceeding and use it for partial reconstruction next year of U.S. Route 422, unless you object by Oct. 3 (2011).

An engineering drawing, overlaid on a aerial photo, of proposed improvements on Route 422 in and around Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township. Work is expected to start during 2012.

That, in summary, is the message of a lengthy advertisement that appeared Saturday (Sept. 3) in The (Pottstown PA) Mercury newspaper, which the state recognizes as a publication of record for legal notices.

The Unknowns – there are two of them, actually – are just that: owners of real estate parcels within Lower Pottsgrove whose real names and addresses cannot be identified. The advertisement does not indicate where their properties, labeled as parcels 68 and 89, are located, but they are near the Armand Hammer Boulevard interchange of 422 and its bridge further west over the Schuylkill River.

The state for months has been buying pieces of real estate it needs to rebuild three 422 bridges spanning, and on both sides of, the Schuylkill between Lower Pottsgrove and North Coventry townships. It also is buying around the nearby interchanges, at Armand Hammer and Route 724, where it plans to reconfigure entrance and exit ramps. PennDOT refers to the area as Section M1A of the Pottstown Bypass Improvement Project.

Lower Pottsgrove itself in July (2011) sold a small parcel it owned beneath Armand Hammer to the state for that purpose, and earned $20,900 in the process.

State planners usually decide which properties they need to complete a project like this. State appraisers then determine what they claim to be a fair market value for the land to be bought, and state real estate experts make an offer at that price to the deeded owners. Sometimes the parties haggle, and the price may change; sometimes not. Either way, progress is rarely stopped, and the ground is acquired.

On occasion, though, a deed may have never been filed with the appropriate county, or the recorded data is misplaced or lost, or the last owner has died without naming heirs. Even if the state has no way of contacting whoever owns the lands now (the “Unknowns”), it must buy them before its project can proceed.

So Pennsylvania turns to the law of eminent domain, which allows it to take the property by condemnation. The public must be told about PennDOT’s intentions; it did that in the legal notice. The state must pay “just compensation” for the property, which in this case will be held in an escrow account by the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

If the Unknowns surface within the next six years, by 2017 or so, they can file a petition with the court to get their money. If they don’t, the law says once the deadline passes the state effectively acquired the property for free and can keep its cash.

Or if the Unknowns know who they are – a rarity, but possible – they can file a preliminary objection to the taking by Oct. 3. Then they’ll be unknown no more, and purchase negotiations can proceed.

The Unknowns, by the way, seem to be a big family. A similar advertisement, seeking them for property in North Coventry for the same project, also appeared Saturday in The Mercury.

SANATOGA PA – It’s been three weeks – since Aug. 18 (2011) – that Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township has been awaiting re-pavement of three state roads milled last month by contractors for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The wait is ending … sort of.

Work crews spent most of Friday night (Sept. 2) to pave North Sanatoga Road in Sanatoga PA between East High Street and North Pleasant View Road. They didn’t finish before the dawn, though; about 100 yards of North Sanatoga’s southbound lane from North Pleasant View did not get a two-inch topping of fresh asphalt, which gave new meaning to a nearby sign that proclaimed “uneven pavement.”

Bliem Road between North Pleasant View and North Charlotte Street received no paving attention Friday; and the state of Maugers Mill Road between North Charlotte and Farmington Avenue was unobserved but also assumed to remain unchanged. Crews did not work Saturday, Sunday or Monday (the Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3-5). Whether they will return Tuesday is unknown.

At least one township resident, however, hopes they’ll keep the racket down when they do.

“I could hear heavy machinery, trucks, and the beeping of backing-up vehicles all night,” a Noel Circle, Sanatoga, homeowner wrote The Post via e-mail on Saturday morning. “It was not conducive to a good night’s sleep on a holiday weekend!,” she added. “I thought it had to be some emergency sinkhole or something. I can’t believe they’re doing paving overnight! It must be real fun for those who live right there.”

KING OF PRUSSIA PA – The inspection of a U.S. Route 422 bridge crossing the Perkiomen Creek will restrict traffic on an eastbound portion of that highway Thursday morning (Sept. 1, 2011) near Oaks PA, the King of Prussia-based District 6 office of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced Tuesday (Aug. 30).

The bridge between Pawlings and Egypt roads in Upper Providence (PA) Township will be subject to inspection from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the day, PennDOT Community Relations Coordinator Charles Metzger said. One lane of the roadway there will be closed, limiting traffic flow. “Motorists are advised to allow extra time when traveling through the area,” he added.

The reason or need for the inspection was not given.

Drivers can regularly check traffic conditions on Pennsylvania’s major highways by visiting the department’s website, 511pa.com; by calling 5-1-1 from any phone; or by monitoring the social media website Twitter at www.twitter.com/511PAPhilly.

SANATOGA PA – When will already milled state-owned roads within Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township be re-paved? Sometime during the next two weeks, Manager Rodney Hawthorne reported Thursday (Aug. 18, 2011), and maybe beginning as early as this Sunday (Aug. 21).

Don’t hold your breath, though, waiting for equipment to arrive. The paving dates are tough to pinpoint, Hawthorne acknowledged, because those involved aren’t quite certain what they are.

An uneven pavement sign stands at the East High Street end of North Sanatoga Road. Lower Pottsgrove drivers are awaiting the return of contractors to finish paving there

It’s been more than a week since a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation contractor, Allan A. Myers and American Infrastructure, brought its work crews across North Sanatoga Road, from East High Street to North Pleasant View Road; Bleim Road, from North Pleasant View west to North Charlotte Street; and Maugers Mill Road, form North Charlotte Street to Gilbertsville Road.

Those roads were closed over several nights as milling machinery ground down and removed a layer of asphalt to prepare for their re-paving. Once done, uneven pavement signs were posted at both ends of each road. Nothing’s happened with them since.

Township crews earlier this week created small asphalt slopes around manhole covers on the roads to make driving them less jarring, Hawthorne said.

He’s confident the roads will be topped, as well as portions of East High Street from Rupert Road west to North Pleasant View. A call this week from a Myers representative confirmed as much, Hawthorne added. The mystery is exactly when.

Until then, motorists are urged to drive slowly and carefully in the affected areas.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):

• Road Re-Paving Is Coming; Just When Anybody’s Guess
• Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
• Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is

Thursday morning traffic approaches East High Street at North Sanatoga Road, which had been milled overnight by a PennDOT contractor, Allan A. Myers

The road surface is due to be repaved

SANATOGA PA – Employees of highway contractor Allan A. Myers and American Infrastructure worked overnight Wednesday (Aug. 10, 2011) to mill the pavement of North Sanatoga Road, between East High Street and North Pleasant View Road, for future resurfacing, the King of Prussia office of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) said.

The work, which is part of what was reported to be a $9.5 million contract to repair the state-owned roads, was anticipated to continue Thursday night (Aug. 11) from 6 p.m. through Friday morning (Aug. 12) at 6 a.m.

The company also was scheduled to work on portions of Bliem Road west to North Charlotte Street, according to PennDOT’s notice. Lane restrictions and delayed traffic were expected as a result.

About 10 percent of the King of Prussia region’s state road system is repaved each spring using a variety of methods and materials, PennDOT’s website explained. Individual projects are typically small scale, with crews completing short paving sections in a few days to a week before moving on to another location and beginning again.

Work on most surface treatment roadways is limited to off-peak hours, it said, to minimize the impact on traffic. Because protection of paving crews on most surface treatment roadways is limited due to the temporary nature of the projects, PennDOT added, motorists should obey speed limits and drive with extreme care when traveling through highway work zones.

The corner of Armand Hammer Boulevard and High Street in Pottstown

SANATOGA PA – “That’s the way you do it,” rock singer Mark Knopfler and the band Dire Straits crooned in 1986. “Get your money for nuthin’ and your chicks for free.”

Their pop song, “Money For Nothing,” was a big hit during the MTV and VH1 video music era. Now, 25 years later, it may be a golden oldie of sorts in the Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township municipal building too.

• Watch a video of Dire Straits performing “Money For Nothing” in Switzerland during 1992, above, or see it at the YouTube user account of kmhjyellow.

Don’t misunderstand: there are no – repeat NO – chicks or other forms of animal life involved in a deal to which the Board of Commissioners agreed earlier this month (July 7, 2011). But board members think the township may have gotten a more than $20,000 gift, its own money for nothing, by simply saying “yes” to an offer from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).

PennDOT is preparing for work to begin in 2012 on the reconstruction of bridges near, and a reconfiguration of roads at, the Armand Hammer Boulevard exit of U.S. Route 422 on Lower Pottsgrove’s southwest side. The agency needed ground the township owns – literally, a portion of the Armand Hammer roadway and right-of-way, Manager Rodney Hawthorne said – to rebuild one of the 422 ramps there. It offered to pay $20,900 for the parcel.

“Is that a fair price?,” Commissioner Michael McGroarty asked. “Don’t know,” Hawthorne replied. PennDOT surely has paperwork to document the value, he added.

“Are we using the property for anything?,” Commissioner James Kaiser chipped in. It’s a road now, Hawthorne said of the boulevard piece, and it’ll be a road later as well. “Then let’s take their money,” Kaiser said with a grin.

The board approved, unanimously.

You could almost hear a guitar faintly wailing in the background.

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ July 7 meeting):

• Township Sells PennDOT Some Asphalt, Makes $20K
• Vacant Home Neighbors Worry About Property Values
• Township Holds Off On Police Radio Upgrade Decision
• The Post Providing Monthly Township Warrants Online
• NRC Staffers Stop By, Say ‘Hi’ To Commissioners
• Italian Restaurant Construction Could Start Within Weeks
• At Township DUI Check, They Got What They Paid For
• Police Radio Discussion Possible In Township’s Meeting

KING OF PRUSSIA PA – Motorists traveling U.S. Route 422 will face night-time lane closures through June 30 (2011; Thursday) between the Route 202 and Route 23 interchanges in Chester and Montgomery counties, as workers re-surface pavement there, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 6 office in King of Prussia PA announced Monday (June 20).

Night paving will occur through June 30 on Route 422

422 will be reduced from two lanes to one nightly, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning, near its First Avenue interchange. Crews began milling the road surface Sunday night (June 19) and expect to start paving Wednesday (June 22). The contractor’s work, scheduled through the end of the month, is weather-dependent.

Drivers are advised to allow additional time for travel on 422 during construction, because backups may occur, PennDOT said.

Its contractor will resurface 1,800 feet of 422 as part of a $2.7 million project that began in February (2011). It intended to fill voids beneath the highway that could potentially develop into sinkholes.

Crews have drilled 570 holes along 500 feet of road and median on 422, and pumped grout to support the pavement and fill underground cavities. In addition, PennDOT said, the contractor replaced deteriorated concrete pavement and installed a liner in the grass median to seal the surface and block water penetration.

Photo from Google Images