EMMAUS

The Borough of Emmaus will close a portion of North 10th Street beginning this week.

According to Borough Manager Shane Pepe Oct. 30, Mayor Winfield Iobst issued a proclamation late last week in accordance with a recommendation made by Borough Engineer Hanover Engineering. The closure is due to concerns with the structural integrity of the North 10th Street Culvert, located on North 10th Street, just off Chestnut Street. The portion of the street to be closed will be from just past Advanced Auto Parts from Green Street to where Walnut Street begins. This will affect local traffic in the neighborhood as well as the routes for several school buses.

The expected closure will be for up to eight months.

“This culvert has been a problem for quite some time and our engineers have continued to monitor it every three to six months,” Pepe said. “They feel, at this point, the culvert will not be safe to drive over throughout winter. Therefore, we will be closing the street in the next few days. We expect the street to be closed until around the end of May. This also affects pedestrian traffic, as the borough will also close the sidewalk areas through this section of street as well.”

Pepe said the borough has received a $238,777 grant to help replace the culvert. The expected replacement cost will be over $300,000. The replacement project is a significant undertaking.

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“We are replacing the metal culvert with a pre-cast, specially made concrete culvert. We have to relocate underground utility lines and we have to divert the creek while working on the project. We have to form concrete wing walls and we have to dig under the bed of the creek, according to PennDOT [the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation], to place the culvert, as they are not allowing us to use our original design to simply go over the creek. This involves coordination not only with the borough, our engineers and our contractors, but also with PennDOT and approvals and guidance from PA DEP [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection].

“We expect the bidding process to begin soon for the project, with construction on the project to begin just after Valentine’s Day. We are aiming to complete the project before the beginning of June,” Pepe said.