Mount Vernon streets to be target of New Kensington paving

Often over the years, New Kensington officials have had to tell residents to hang tight and keep waiting for paving projects — particularly in the Mount Vernon neighborhood.

Now those residents and motorists will soon have relief.

Mayor Tom Guzzo said the city will enter into a loan agreement with the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank to pave 17 streets using state liquid fuels tax money.

The program is designed to provide low-interest loans and lines of credit to help fund transportation projects.

New Kensington’s loan is for $1.19 million, which will be paid from its liquid fuels funds generated through the state’s gasoline tax, Guzzo said.

The interest rate is 3.75%.

“That’s a really great thing,” Guzzo said. “It’ll give us an opportunity to fix some streets that people have been telling us for quite some time (need to be fixed).”

“And we’ve been telling them, ‘please hang on, we’re going for this loan.’ And so the loan finally came through, and we are very, very pleased that we’re going to be able to fix at least the first 17 streets.”

City Engineer Tony Males said the list of streets was shared with utility companies to make sure there were no conflicts with their projects.

The preliminary list of streets includes more than just those in Mount Vernon:

• Fourth Avenue, from Ninth to 11th streets

• Beech Street, from Seventh Street Road to Strawn Avenue

• Haser Drive, from Seventh Street Ext. to Zaleski Drive

• Zaleski Drive

• Birch Street, from Oates Boulevard to Vogel Drive

• Summit Street, from Seventh Street Road to Pleasant Avenue

• Constitution Boulevard, from Seventh Street to Ninth Street

• Spring Street, from Seventh Street Road to Pleasant Avenue

• Pleasant Avenue, from Spring Street to Summit Street

• McLaughlin Drive

• Charles Avenue, from Oakwood Street to the cul-de-sac

• Grandview Boulevard, from Seventh Street Road to Ross Avenue

• Industrial Boulevard, from Ninth Street to Tenth Street

• Adams Street, from Fernledge Drive to Caldwell Avenue

• Esther Avenue, from Constitution Boulevard to Louise Street

• Catalpa Street, from Freeport Road to Orchard Street

• Long Vue Drive, from Seventh Street Ext. to Fairmont Street

Estimated start dates for those projects are in August or September, Males said.

“This is quite an amazing program, and we are thrilled to be able to (move forward) with that,” Guzzo said.

The city also plans to pave the Ninth Street underpass starting in June; and Greenridge Road, from Seventh Street Road to Summit Street, in August.