Berks Park 78 is a 350 acre Industrial Park developed by the Berks County industrial Development Authority. The Park is located along Interstate Route 78 at Rte 501 in Bethel Township, Berks County. The Park will provide four shovel-ready sites for new industrial development and one commercial site, with a new public water system (via wells, pumps & storage tanks) and public sewer. Civil Engineering for the project included design of a new access road, lot lay-out, utility design, environmental & stormwater design, and subdivision work.
Civil engineering design for the project was begun under an IDA contract with a different firm. However, as construction neared IDA and the Project Managers at Blue Rock Construction decided to seek a new engineer. Competitive proposals were sought and short-listed firms were interviewed. We are proud that Ludgate Engineering was selected to complete the civil engineering design for the project.
Although some construction, using the original design, was underway, Ludgate worked with Blue Rock and Berks IDA to effect many significant beneficial design changes. These changes improved the lot lay-out and reduced some of the road, drainage, and utility construction costs. Ludgate was even able to create an extra industrial building lot due to improved and reduced stormwater design features on the planned lots. Ludgate's efforts also helped to improve the projects relationships with local officials as well as State && Federal agencies from whom project approvals and permits were required.
Although selected for the work by Berks IDA, our design work was done under subcontract with Blue Rock Construction, Allentown, PA. We provided surveying, subdivision and land development services to complete IDA's requirements to provide shovel-ready sites for industrial development. The work included the subdivision of lots for industrial development as well as land development plans for multiple large industrial buildings. Shovel-ready required full site permitting for the proposed lots including stormwater management, NPDES, and land development. Permits were coordinated with Berks County Conservation District, PA DEP, US Army Corps of Engineers, Berks County and Bethel Township.
IDA's project team, working under County Economic Development Director, Tom McKeon, has transferred two of these large ready to build sites to blue chip industrial companies. Lot 1 and Lot 2 are currently under construction and will be highlighted separately.
