Street paving in Bellevue Park on Thursday
On a quiet neighborhood street Thursday morning in Harrisburg, trucks slowly laid hot asphalt.
Just before that, city officials ceremoniously broke ground on the “Allison Hill paving project” in the Bellevue Park community, which includes patching and paving many worn streets.
The $1.1 million project includes resurfacing on portions of 15th Street, Midland Street, Rudy Road, Bellevue Road and Magnolia Road.
ADA-accessible ramps will also be constructed on sidewalks along the roads, explained Mayor Eric Papenfuse. Additionally, stormwater inlets will be evaluated to make sure they are functioning.
Much of the road patching will be completed in the next few days, while major paving and other improvements will take place in the spring, according to City Engineer Wayne Martin.
Earlier this year, ADA-compliant bus stops were installed on Market Street, Martin said. He added that York-based Shiloh Paving and Excavating will complete the road work.
If the road maintenance had been delayed for just a few more years, the damage would have been significantly more, costing the city up to 10 times as much as the current project, Martin said.
According to Papenfuse, the Allison Hill paving project is part of the administration’s goal to repave identified streets across the city in a $100 million initiative.
“This is due to years of deferred maintenance under the city’s compromised financial situation,” he said. “We are finally in a position where we can address that $100 million in streets and roads.”
While many of the recent road construction projects have focused on main streets in the city, such as N. 6th Street or 2nd Street, Martin said that many neighborhood street projects are in the works.
“It’s an astounding amount of streets and roads that need to be paved,” Papenfuse said.
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