After Frequent Flooding, Gates Coming Soon To Green Lane Underpass

Repeated flooding at an underpass has Bristol Borough officials moving quickly to install floodgates after the roadway was submerged during three of the past four storms.

At the Bristol Borough Council meeting Monday, Borough Engineer Kurt Schroeder, of Gilmore and Associates, said that the borough already has the gates on hand.

A traffic engineer is scheduled to meet with the contractor at the site this week to pinpoint the exact installation locations.

Once the site visit happens, the contractor is expected to begin installation shortly after, Schroeder said.

“The sooner the better we can get the floodgates installed,” Bristol Borough Emergency Management Coordinator AJ DeAngelis said.

The chronic flooding at the Green Lane underpass, which sits on the border of Bristol Borough and Bristol Township, has posed safety hazards for years and burdened local police.

Every time the underpass floods beneath the overhead Northeast Corridor railroad tracks, police officers must be dispatched to block off the roadway.

DeAngelis said that while the police department does an excellent job, the flooding pulls officers away from other duties. The gates should fix that problem.

“We’re taking them off of the street to babysit a flooded roadway where they could be utilized somewhere else if there’s a more pertinent emergency,” he said.

The $40,000 safety project features barrier gates and an emergency lighting system to shut down the flood-prone road.

Borough Manager Jim Dillon said last year that Bristol Township has agreed to split the cost of the project with the borough.

Officials have attributed the repeated flooding to a combination of a too-small PennDOT pipe and the design of the railroad underpass. Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor, SEPTA’s Trenton Regional Rail Line, and freight trains use the tracks above.

Heavy rainfall since the beginning of July has kept emergency responders busy and led to numerous weather alerts to residents from DeAngelis.

The emergency coordinator said June was busy, as well. It included several weather emergencies and required an emergency management presence at seven separate events.