The Borough of Pottstown has three construction projects coming up this spring located within Chestnut Street Park, Memorial Park, and Riverfront Park, that will provide new park features, and improve access and safety in the parks.
The Chestnut Street Park Redevelopment Project is expected to begin in April. The
project includes replacing aging playground elements, removing unused and deteriorating features, providing improved access for individuals with mobility issues, and reconfiguring the space to provide for a more useful open lawn area. The existing playground equipment will be removed, and new equipment will be installed closer to the street frontage. Space previously occupied by the playground will be conjoined with existing lawn space to make a larger lawn/open play space. The old “bandstand” will be removed and reclaimed partially as green space; the existing picnic pavilion will be preserved. Finally, a paved path will be installed around the perimeter of the space. The funding for this project comes from two sources, the Department of Conversation and Natural Resources Community Conservation Partnership Program (C2P2) awarded $239,300 to the Borough and the Department of Community and Economic Development awarded $59,830.
The Memorial Park Pedestrian Bridge Project is expected to begin mid-April and conclude the first week of June. This project focuses on replacing the steel bridge damaged in the 2019 flash flood on Manatawny Creek. The bridge will be replaced with a prefabricated steel bridge, and streambank stabilization will be added upstream and downstream from the structure. The bridge will reconnect the two sides of the park. Project grant funding comes from several sources, Pottstown Area Health & Wellness Foundation ($98,000), Department of Conversion and Natural Resources C2P2 Program ($150,000) and MontCo 2040 Implementation Program ($200,000).
Finally, the Riverfront Park Project began on March 6th with restoration of the embankment which is expected be completed in April. During this time the SRT connection through Riverfront Park will be closed and a detour to the pedestrian ways along College Drive is available. The project will then be on hold while a new pedestrian bridge is in the final stages of fabrication. It is anticipated that work on the bridge structure will commence at the end of September and conclude at the end of October, during which time the same detour will be offered for the SRT through Riverfront Park. The funding for this project totals $620,000. To stay up to date on the upcoming projects go to the projects page section of Pottstown’s website, https://pottstown.org/.