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PUT AN END TO "PLUMBERS' PATCHES"!

June 28, 2017

Hi everyone - Please add your voice to ours. Councilman Mark Squilla - Mark.Squilla@Phila.gov

Dear Councilman Mark Squilla:

Please introduce legislation to require contractors, utilities, and government departments to properly restore our historically certified streets immediately after excavation, instead of using asphalt or concrete “plumbers patches”.

Plumbers patches are unsafe, unsightly, and unnecessarily disruptive to our community. Since 2010, the Philadelphia Society of Streets (PSSS) has advocated for legislation to ban plumbers patches on our historically certified streets, while the Streets Department continues to claim that they can handle the plumbers patch situation. The facts do not support that contention.

History continues to repeat itself in Washington Square West as asphalt “plumbers patches” continue to multiply on our historically certified streets and unsecured historic pavers and gutters disappear:

There is a new asphalt “plumbers patch” on Cypress Street (300 block), which makes its second patch since the street was restored in 2012.
More plumbers patches are also on Hutchinson, including a large section that intersects with Spruce Street. The stone pavers are piled on the sidewalk, unsecured and available to be stolen.
Quince Street, 200 block, now has a concrete gutter where two large historic granite gutters were, but have since disappeared because they were unsecured. Quince Street has been shut down to traffic on and off for the past several months due to work on their plumbers patch.
The plumbers patch on Chancellor Street (200 block) and the mess on St. James’s (at the intersection of 13th Street) remain unrestored.

Once again we request that you please introduce legislation to require contractors, utilities, and government departments to properly restore our historically certified streets immediately after excavation and not use asphalt or concrete patches. Thank you.

Lynn and Cliff Landes, Founders
The Philadelphia Society of Small Streets (PSSS)
http://www.smallstreetsphilly.org
http://www.meetup.com/The-Philadelphia-Society-of-Small-Streets-PSSS
LynnLandes@earthlink.net / 215-629-3553