City agrees to spend $2.4 million for Monroe Street stormwater project
Nearly a year after city streets flooded as a result of severe thunderstorms, officials are spending big to mitigate future stormwater in a problem area.
Butler City Council voted unanimously at a meeting Thursday, May 28, to award the bid for the Monroe Street storm sewer project to Holbein Inc. at a cost of $2,433,823. The project is a continuation of a 12-year-old prior project that was abandoned by the city due to financial concerns.
“We started at Cunningham Street, took a pipe up Monroe Street to Jefferson Street, and that’s as far as we could go with the funding available for the project,” zoning officer John Evans explained.
With the new funding, the project will continue from where it left off on Jefferson Street to Pearl Street.
“It will catch a tremendous amount of water in that watershed to help reduce the high water events and flooding that are down in front of the Snack-N-Pack,” Evans said.
Evans added the project will also include the upsizing of an existing storm sewer pipe that runs between Cunningham Street and Connoquenessing Creek, as well as adding an additional pipe in the same area.
He noted the project will likely not be fully awarded until September, with work likely to begin late in the year and continue in the spring. He predicts the project will be finalized by early summer 2027.
“The reason for (the delay) is, in order for us to cross Jefferson Street, which is also a state highway, we have to get a highway occupancy permit; and with the traffic signal project that’s going on now, PennDOT is reluctant to give us an HOP until their contractors have completed their work,” Evans explained.
He also said the work will not guarantee elimination of high water events but will “significantly reduce” the chance.
The funds for the project come from a $15 million section of the city’s proceeds from the sale of the Butler Area Sewer Authority that was set aside for capital improvement projects, Mayor Bob Dandoy said.
Plans for stormwater mitigation on Monroe Street started after thunderstorms last spring caused multiple flash floods, including at the street’s intersection with East Jefferson Street.
Dandoy said he wishes the project could’ve come to fruition sooner, but was glad to see progress.
“It’s been a mess down there and we’ve got to get something done there. I’m happy to do it,” he said.
He added more projects to mitigate flooding are planned, but this will be the most expensive.
