In the coming weeks, the Mill Street Parking Lot in Bristol Borough will be a lot smoother.
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The pothole-filled parking lot has been stripped of its top layer of pavement and work is underway this week to put down a fresh, smooth coat.
Borough Manager Jim Dillon said the contractor plans to complete the paving work by Friday, May 6.
After paving is done, the parking lot will have to be striped for parking spaces, the borough manager said.
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For months, utility work has taken place in the parking lot and preparations were underway to prepare the lot for its final coat of pavement.
Amanda Fuller, who works for the borough’s engineering firm Gilmore and Associates, told Bristol Borough Council earlier this year that curbing was fixed and several Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant curb ramps are being added to parts of the lot.
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The parking lot overhaul is being covered by a $1 million Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant.
In addition to repaving the lot, upgrades to the lot’s stormwater system have been underway. However, the work will not completely fix the flooding problem that plagues the lot, but the work is designed to improve some ponding and minor flooding.
The location of the Mill Street Parking Lot used to be a water-filled basin for the Delaware Canal in the 1800s and early 1900s. The basin and docking area was filled in over the years after the canal closed in the early 1930s and later became the public parking lot.
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Last year, Bristol Borough Public Works Department crews fixed up and rebuilt aging viewing platforms along the canal basin and parking lot.
Borough Engineer Kurt Schroeder, of Gilmore and Associates, laid out a conceptual proposal in 2018 to remake the waterfront area and parking lot. The plan showed an amphitheater, paved promenade along the river, an additional boat dock by the marsh, boardwalks in nature areas, a multi-level parking deck to replace the Mill Street Parking Lot, and bulkhead wall along the river. The plan also showed a block of Cedar Street and Wood Street as pedestrian malls in the central business district.
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At the time, council members said the plan was just a proposal and would take millions of dollars to pull off.
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