Neighbors viewing renderings of the streetwork
Last night, neighbors from the 1700 to the 2300 blocks of Frankford Avenue gathered at Circle of Hope for an important community meeting. They were briefed on the details of a million dollar PennDOT project, years in the making, that was about to break ground. The location: their own doorsteps.
After years of community planning phases and approval letters being sent between NKCDC, PennDOT and the City of Philadelphia, street improvement work on Frankford Avenue was finally put out to bid several months ago. A contractor, L.C. Costa Construction Inc, of Warminster, PA was the low bidder with a 1.15 million dollar price tag for the half-mile zone’s street work. Pending a final commencement order from PennDOT, contractors could begin work as early as the first half of November, and no later than early December.
Details after the jump…
Work will encompass near-total replacement of sidewalks and curbs from Palmer to York Street. Approximately 39 new street trees, of six different species, will be planted to beautify the corridor. New benches will be installed, and BigBelly trash cans, like those recently installed in Center City, will be placed on most intersections. These solar-powered, compacting trash bins have separate receptacles for recycling, require emptying far less frequently than conventional wirebasket trash cans.
Two new custom bus shelters, also created by group g Architects will be installed. The bus shelters will feature illuminated bulbs and colored transparent acrylic tiles. Both will be installed on the southbound side of the street, with the first at Palmer and Frankford, and the other at Dauphin and Frankford.
A series of color-coded, custom made steel signs designed group g Architects, will be placed at each intersection. A dozen such signs will line the corridor, featuring way finding information and bringing a greater sense of identity to the arts corridor. The signs will feature the forged and stylized letters “F” and “A”, for Frankford Avenue.
Four new “ArtRacks”, sculpted bike racks fabricated by local artists, will be mounted on the sidewalk, in addition to the 8 existing racks. Previously installed municipal U-racks will also be removed and relocated for more efficent usage.
The bulbs on existing streetlights will be upgraded to newer, brighter models in order a provide more illumination as night. Older, existing fixture heads will be replaced with modern versions which are shaped to more efficently cast light onto the sidewalk and roadway.
The project will be completed in phases, with work taking place on only one side of each block at any given time. This method will allow each block to maintain one lane of parking open while the other half of the street is under construction. The opposing parking lane will be closed for use as a temporary walkway while sidewalk replacement takes place on that side of the street. Street traffic will not be interrupted by construction.
As with any street construction, there will be some disruption and inconvenience with this project. NKCDC would like to work as closely as possible with neighbors to minimize this impact. If you believe you will be affected by this work, or have more questions, feel free to contact Ryan Briggs at rbriggs@nkcdc.org, or 215-427-0350, ext. 124.
Tags: Circle of Hope, group g, Orth-Rogers, Streetscaping
We are a fairly new arts org and are looking for a home in the north east. We would like to partner with any orgs that are doing art work in the north east. We support arts in education and community art projects.