Repairs to Slatington’s 100 steps are left in limbo.

The 100 steps run from Hill Street to Fairview Avenue, and are thought to be about 100 years old. The concrete steps are chipped and cracked, and the borough has been working on a solution to repair them for a long time.

“We’ve spent years on getting the plans approved,” said Dan Stevens, the former borough manager. “We put a lot of work into that.”

Stevens said recently that the 100 steps project began as a way to mitigate water drainage problems on Hill Street that is affecting residents there. The project eventually included repairing the steps as well.

He worked on the project with Lehigh Engineering Associates in Walnutport, which was the borough’s engineer at the time, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. He also acquired a $400,000 Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside grant for the project.

This spring

At the Slatington Borough Council meeting on April 12, an assessment by the township’s new engineering firm, Acela Architects + Engineers in Allentown, was given about the steps. That’s when the future of the project became in question. It was on the agenda for May, but Roy Hambrecht, the townships new borough manager, said there wasn’t anything to report at this time.

Stevens said, “I don’t know why Acela did an assessment. All the plans were done. It was close to going out to bid as of September.”

Stevens retired the first week of September and was replaced by Hambrecht in November.

The assessment from Acela in April stated that the concrete in the steps is in disrepair and the handrails contain lead in the paint.

“That’s nothing new,” Stevens said. “We knew about that. All that stuff was done when Lehigh was there.”

Stevens said the paint was going to be replaced.

New firm

Acela was hired by the council in January. At the time, the council decided to have Lehigh Engineering continue with the 100 steps project because it was underway.

When asked why Acela is handling it now, Hambrecht said, “This project goes back many years, and it is anticipated to continue for many more years. Given that Acela was hired to replace Lehigh Engineering as the borough’s engineering firm and given that the 100 steps project may continue for some time, it was thought that the prudent thing to do was to hand the work over to Acela.”

Hambrecht explained, “Lehigh Engineering produced a budget for the project, spent a significant amount of time working with PennDOT on project requirements, and produced a Dec. 10, 2024, response to PennDOT comments on the project. Acela is reworking the quote as additional work may be necessary. Once that quote is finalized, it will be introduced at a borough council meeting to determine if the borough will continue this project.”

Changes

Justin Gross, a senior project engineer with Lehigh Engineering, said that on Sept. 30, PennDOT sent the borough a comment letter called the 90% Constructability Report. In it, PennDOT said the structural integrity of the walls of the steps is a problem. In addition to the railings and steps, the walls also would have to be replaced.

“This would be a significant increase in the cost,” Gross said.

Gross thinks the repairs to the steps and removal of the lead paint on the railings would have been within the scope of the grant, but not with the new requirements.

Status quo

The steps are not closed off to pedestrians, and people do continue to walk on them, he said. They’re chipped, but not unusable.

Hambrecht said that there isn’t an expiration on the grant for when work has to be done, but the borough has to show progress on the project by late summer or early fall or the grant may be at risk of being lost.

“If the borough wants to move forward after reviewing the revised quote, the borough would plan on bidding this project out in the late summer/early fall timeline,” Hambrecht said. “Spring/summer 2026 is the target for work to begin, if the borough moves forward.”