SMALL STREETS MAINTENANCE
REPORT MAJOR SUBSIDENCE AND/OR POTHOLES TO 311: If you have a safety hazard, you should immediately notify the Streets Department - http://www.phila.gov/311/form/Pages/default.aspx or call 3-1-1 (215-686-8686) Save the reference number if you need to follow-up. Always state on the form if your street is historically designated, part of the Philadelphia Historic Street Paving Thematic District, and therefore asphalt should not be used. An inspector will be sent out. Often the Water Department needs to get involved. Follow up with them at http://www.phila.gov/water/aboutus/Pages/ContactUs.aspx - using the General Inquiries number (215-685-6300) and speak with a representative, who should also give you a tracking number. Other utilities might also get involved. Just keep following up with the various entities until the complaint is fixed. Tenacity is often required. You can also contact PSSS and we will assist you. Our contact information is at bottom of this page.
PLUMBERS PATCHES: UPDATE 1/15/16 (Unfortunately, the following program still allows for plumbers patches). MAY 2014: Good news. One of our main goals is to stop unsightly "plumbers patches". A pilot program to allow homeowners to contract historic street restorations through their plumbing contractors will run from July to December 2014. Residents will save $450 on their permits. Previously, plumbers felt that they had to pour an asphalt or concrete patch. Homeowners had to wait years for the city to get around to restoring the patch, which rarely occurred. Now, homeowners have the option to contract for the restoration work to be done immediately. So, congratulations to everyone. We think that this is a good first step toward putting an end to unsightly "plumbers patches", and it wouldn't have happened without your support. Thank you! Now we need to put an end to plumbers patches permanently. They are blighting our community and wasting taxpayers dollars. What's the point of restoring a historic street if the very next week a contractor can pour a plumbers patch, as happened with the newly restored 200 block of Warnock Street in 2012!
SIDEWALK RESTORATION: We strongly advise residents with substandard or concrete sidewalks to consider restoring them with historic brick. We and four of our neighbors did that in 2012 when our street was restored and it has made the street look beautiful and very historically authentic. We got our bricks from http://www.phillyprovenance.com/. In our experience (the 2012 Jessup / Cypress / Panama / Warnock Streets restoration), where the contractor needed to remove bricks and sidewalks in order to restore the street, the contractor also put them back, at no expense to the homeowner. That is clearly the situation on Philip Street. The collapse of the street has caused the collapse of the sidewalk. However, if the sidewalks and curbs (including driveway "curb-cuts") were already in bad shape, and not caused by the street, then the homeowner 'could' (not necessarily 'would') get charged for any repairs made by the contractor. In 2012, at first the Streets Department said that residents needed to hire their own contractors. But then they relented, in that the logistics and logic of the situation called for the on-site contractor to make any additional repairs individual property owners would require. We can't give any guarantees that this will be the policy going forward, but that was our experience.
Links and information for maintenance and construction:
Contractors for restoring sidewalks and streets as recommended by PSSS members: