Tamaqua road project cancels Summerfest
Visitors stroll Broad Street during a recent Tamaqua Summerfest celebration. It was decided Thursday that the popular event will not take place this year due to complications arising from the upcoming Wabash Creek Tunnel rehabilitation project on West Broad Street. DONALD R. SERFASS/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
New traffic patterns and detours associated with an upcoming million-dollar overhaul of an underground Tamaqua bridge has prompted cancellation of one of Tamaqua’s largest yearly festivals.
The board of directors of the Tamaqua Historical Society voted Thursday to put a temporary stop to what would have been the 28th Annual Tamaqua Summerfest, set for Father’s Day, June 17.
“After considering our options to relocate or shift the Tamaqua Summerfest location downtown and considering other potential problems we would likely have with vendors and directing visitors around town during the Wabash Creek Tunnel construction project on West Broad Street, the Tamaqua Historical Society board of directors met this evening and decided we will cancel the Summerfest just for this year,” said Dale Freudenberger, president.
“The Heritage Festival will still be held on the second Sunday of October this year in downtown Tamaqua. The Summerfest will return in 2019.”
The festival has been a family-oriented fixture in the downtown since its inception, attracting thousands to enjoy music, food, crafts, historical re-enactments, tours, car shows, train rides and special exhibits.
The event is regarded as the first big celebration of the summer season in eastern Schuylkill County and spreads over several blocks of West Broad, South Railroad and Berwick streets, part of Nescopec, and Hegarty Avenue.
Virtually all of those areas will be heavily impacted by detours, new traffic patterns and parking restrictions in the coming months.
The bridge project involves replacement and rehabilitation of a significant section of a buried 160-year-old stone arch tunnel beneath Route 209 in the unit block of West Broad Street.
The area to be excavated includes both lanes of travel in front of Wells Fargo Bank and La Dolce Casa Restaurant.
Four years ago, PennDOT placed 28-ton weight restriction signs at the site.
According to historical accounts, the tunnel could date back to the 1850s. It carries the creek beneath numerous downtown properties in addition to the heavily traveled highway.
Mostly hidden as it wends its way through downtown, the tunnel starts at Mine Road at the bottom of Stadium Hill, goes north under Route 209 and then slowly turns east along West Rowe Street until bending southward, ending along South Railroad Street in the area of the Tamaqua Public Library.
