Chestnut Hill’s cobblestone replacement project to begin at 3 a.m. daily

PennDOT crews working along a stretch of Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill are now starting their shifts several hours earlier.

For the remainder of the maintenance effort, underway to repair and reset Belgian blocks on the shoulders of the commercial corridor between Mermaid Lane and Bethlehem Pike, employees will work between 3 a.m. and 11 a.m. 

Until last week, workers were tackling the task between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

“They made that change so that they were on the Avenue less during the time that businesses were open,” said Jennifer Hawk, executive director of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society. Hawk is acting as the project’s community liaison.

An official with PennDOT said the work is scheduled to be completed by the end of the first week of July, weather permitting.

Crews are currently finishing up the west side of the Avenue. They’ll start working their way down the east side on Wednesday.

Work began May 30.

The month-plus long project marks the first time in 25 to 30 years that PennDOT has comprehensively addressed issues with the stonework long tied to the neighborhood’s small-town aesthetic.

Patches with crumbling blocks and missing groutwork have been repaired in the past.

“We have had good results in other areas that we’ve done,” said PennDOT spokesperson Eugene Blaum, “so we expect to get many years out of it.”