Supply chain crisis delays Zelie revitalization project, Butler signal replacement
Zelienople’s massive Main Street revitalization project has been delayed by a national transformer shortage, according to borough manager Andrew Spencer.
“Construction has come to a temporary stop, at least, because of the supply chain problems that are out there,” Spencer said.
Having completed phase one of the revitalization effort, from the New Castle Street intersection to Spring Street, a delivery of transformers and electrical components for the second phase — spanning Spring Street to Beaver Street — has been repeatedly delayed.
“The borough embarked on the Main Street revitalization several years ago,” Spencer said. “It included purchasing land for parking lots, improving parking and then improving, really, the appeal and look of Main Street.”
The goal of the project is to make the borough’s main corridor an attractive place to do business and own a business, Spencer said.
“The focus is to improve sidewalks, improve the street lighting, improve the traffic signalization and the pedestrian signalization — and also bury the utilities,” he said.
A major part of the project involves moving the street’s utility infrastructure, including poles and transformers, underground.
“We can’t proceed without the transformers, but I will say that we are continuing with the engineering and design for phase three,” Spencer said.
While there is no estimate on when the transformers will arrive, he said phase three of the project will span New Castle Street to Grand Avenue and Four Corners Park.
“So it’s not as if the whole project is halted; we’re still continuing on in the engineering and the design work to move this project to completion,” he said.
In addition, he said the borough is in the process of developing a new comprehensive plan looking at the next 20 to 30 years for the municipality.
“The last comprehensive plan was a joint comprehensive plan with Harmony borough that was done in 2010, and so the borough has decided that it’s time to update that,” Spencer said.
To put the new plan in perspective, he said the last comprehensive plan prior to 2010 was organized in the 1960s.
“This one that we’re going to update now is really just to build on and update 2010,” Spencer said with a laugh. “So, as you can imagine, it’s certainly not going to be what was gone through in 2010 to come up to date from the ’60s.”
Spencer emphasized that, in spite of the transformer shortage, the borough would continue to operate unaffected.
“The industry as a whole is facing this issue,” Spencer said. “The positive — and here’s a positive takeaway: It’s a horrible inconvenience on our project, but for other communities, it’s been a crisis.”
Butler also has faced similar supply chain delays in its ongoing traffic signal replacement project. John Evans, the city’s building code official, said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation project still is waiting on some materials to complete the project.
“The traffic signal replacement project, we do have some supply chain issues with the pole vertical and mast arms,” Evans said. “As they get delivered, they get assembled and then are installed on site.”
Spencer said the borough as been contacted by communities in far more desperate circumstances, though.
“It’s been a crisis where they’ve had transformers that have gone down, blown up, whatever the situation may be, and they can’t get another one,” Spencer said. “And they’re scrambling and borrowing and trying to buy from another utility company halfway across the country because they need a specific transformer that they just can’t get.”
He said the borough is thankful the delay is only an inconvenience for residents.
“It’s a terrible inconvenience, but we’re thankful and we’re positive that this is not a crisis,” Spencer said. “It’s not as if we have people that are out of power, and we can’t get their power restored. They have power; we just can’t finish a project that’s in the making.”
