Hatboro to Pave More Roads than Expected

Before year's end, Hatboro expects to have portions of four borough-owned roads repaved. 

The council on Monday night approved awarding a $106,150.25 bid to Bray Brothers Inc. to repave the following roads: East Montgomery Avenue from Jacksonville Road to Moreland Avenue; James Road near York Road to the borough line; South Penn Street between Moreland Avenue and Byberry Road; Bonair Avenue between Summit Avenue and Penn Street to house No. 246. 

The lower bid of $100,475.25 would have covered the same roads with what officials said was a less sturdy rock. Borough Engineer James Dougherty said the "tougher rock" in the more expensive quote "tends to last a little longer" than the roughly 10-year life of a road. 

"It’s tough to judge how much extra you’ll get out of it," Dougherty said. "It all depends on what’s underneath of it."

With the exception of South Penn Street, which is in need of a road base repair, Borough Manager Fred Zollers said all the road bases "appear to be in pretty good shape."

Zollers told Patch after the meeting that the borough had earmarked roughly $100,000 for this year's road paving–dependent on the total cost of ongoing work on the 150-space parking lot behind the former Wachovia Bank and the rebuilding of Bank Street. 

Officials had projected that the roads, in total, would cost more than $170,000, meaning that the borough would not be able to tackle all this year. But, at about $6,000 more than the amount budgeted, Zollers said doing all in 2013 would not be a problem.