East Deer wants better repaving after utility work under streets

East Deer Commissioners want to make utility companies do more when it comes to repairing streets they dig up.

Commissioners Chairman Tony Taliani said he’s looking at revising the township’s street opening ordinance and wants the rest of the commissioners to do the same.

“I’m bringing it to your attention because I think we need to do something,” Taliani said.

Taliani said, when utilities come into the township and dig up streets to repair or replace utility lines, they now only have to repair just the part of the street they disturb.

“If you pave a street and then, two years later, the gas company comes in and does work, they’re just repairing the trench line or a square,” he said.

Taliani said that can leave the street in a less-than-smooth condition.

“I think we should have them repave half the street instead of having a bunch of trench lines and squares,” he added.

Township engineer Matt Pitsch suggested two communities with ordinances to look at for ways to update are Lower Burrell and Harmar, which he said are essentially the same.

Pitsch said those ordinances require half the street to be paved if the utility work disturbs more than 25 percent of the paved street surface.

“If you have four or more crossings (trenches) within 200 feet, they require repaving the whole street,” he said.

Pitsch said he would provide copies of those ordinances to the commissioners to look at.

Meanwhile, Taliani passed out another sample ordinance for them to study and encouraged them to also look at other communities’ ordinances online for any ideas on how East Deer’s ordinance can be improved and bring them to the June meeting for discussion.