If all goes as planned, area residents might be able to give thanks for the opening of the Route 52 Roundabout along with their Thanksgiving feasts – a couple of months past the project’s scheduled completion date.
Brad Rudolph, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said the general contractor, Road-Con Inc. of West Chester, has been limited in its ability to work on the Pocopson Township project since Labor Day as it waited for five utility companies — Aqua Pennsylvania, Comcast, Peco, Sunesys and Verizon – to complete their work.
Rudolph said Verizon wrapped up its part of the project two weeks ago. This week, Aqua Pennsylania is relocating a fire hydrant. Once the water company finishes that move, all utility work on this project will be completed, and Road-Con can return to a full schedule to finish Phase 3 of the project, which involves the actual construction, Rudolph said.
Although PennDOT is targeting “around Thanksgiving” for the opening of the roundabout to traffic, Rudolph said some punch-list items, such as repairs or installations needed to meet the final approval or inspection, might initially require lane restrictions.
PennDOT began construction in January on the roundabout at the intersection of Route 52 (Lenape Road), Wawaset Road, and Lenape Unionville Road. The $2.15 million project, which is financed totally with federal funds, was originally scheduled to finish in September.
Designed by Pocopson Township to improve safety at the intersection, the roundabout will be the first built by PennDOT in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia region has five other roundabouts, but they were constructed by a municipality or private developers, according to PennDOT.
