Work is about to begin to reclaim nearly 90 acres of mine-scarred land above the Casey Highway, clearing the way for 1.4 million square feet of warehouses in Archbald and Mayfield.
Mayfield signed a contract with Kriger Construction on July 7 to carry out the grant-funded mine reclamation, council President Diana Campbell said. Borough council voted to award Kriger a $12,558,000 contract during its June 11 council meeting, and Mayfield will issue a notice to proceed for Kriger to begin work as soon as the project gets its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NDPES, permit, she said. Once the borough gives Kriger notice, the contractor will have 10 days to begin work, she said.
The reclamation encompasses about 87 acres.
Developer Mark Powell, owner of Reading-based Century Development Associates, expects to receive the NPDES permit — often referred to as a stormwater permit — imminently.
“I’d be surprised if we don’t start doing this by August,” Powell said.
Powell’s planned Century Logistics Center is an estimated $110-million project just off Exit 5 of the Casey Highway at the end of Rushbrook Street that will build a 745,200-square-foot warehouse in Mayfield and a 646,380-square-foot warehouse in Archbald.
To help expedite development, Powell said the state awarded his logistics park with a PA Permit Fast Track Program designation in April.
“It shrinks the timeline, and that makes us more competitive in the market in the mid-Atlantic region for all the other states around us,” Powell said.
The Fast Track Program streamlines permitting for high-impact economic development and infrastructure projects in Pennsylvania that require multiple permits from different state agencies, according to a program description from the state. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order creating the program in November.
To fund the mine reclamation, the state Department of Environmental Protection awarded Mayfield $14.97 million thorough its Abandoned Mine Lands and Acid Mine Drainage Grant Program, giving the small borough the money it needs to reclaim the mine land on the site. With the Kriger contract coming in at just under $12.6 million, Campbell said the borough is using the remaining money to cover other associated costs, including engineering and administrative fees.
The mine reclamation will entail the installation of temporary erosion and sedimentation controls; drilling/blasting and earthmoving of 815,000 cubic yards of material; drilling/blasting and over-excavation, including structural backfill of 820,000 cubic yards for deep mine remediation; and final grading and site stabilization, according to a public notice published in The Times-Tribune in May that advertised the available contract.
According to a DEP grant summary for the project, there were two coal seams that were historically deep mined on the site: the Top Clark and Clark beds, with a 16-acre area covering a portion of the Clark mine that is considered a potential subsidence zone. In addition to reclaiming the mines, other work includes removing spoil piles (mine waste), backfilling pits and excavating high walls, according to the DEP.
In addition to remedying the mines, Powell said he also has to clear the site, which is 139 acres total.
The site work and mine reclamation is projected to take 10 to 12 months, and construction on the first warehouse could start as soon as eight to nine months after work begins, Powell said.
He is still determining which warehouse to build first, though he expects it will more likely be the Archbald warehouse, which is the smaller of the two.
Constructing a 646,000-square-foot building should take about 12 to 15 months, and then it will take the warehouse’s tenant another four to six months to equip the building, Powell said.
Eventually, the two warehouses will create a project 500 to 700 jobs, with pay estimated to be $20 to $24 an hour with benefits, according to Powell.
Campbell said the borough is looking forward to Powell accomplishing his goals and benefiting the community.
“We’re just looking forward to being able to take care of our community and lift the burden off of our property owners here in the town, our residents, and having a great business in town that can provide jobs to the whole area, the whole region,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a great thing to help economically build up our area a little bit more.”