Published: July 05, 2009 11:40 pm      

Work set to begin on business park

SOMERSET — By this time next year, a grassy field will have been transformed into the county’s newest industrial park – a site that could attract thousands of jobs.

Crews soon will demolish three former farm structures, the first step in the creation of Laurel Highlands Business Park in Somerset Township.

Construction work will begin soon after demolition is finished.

“We’re hoping to be completely done by the second quarter of next year,” said Jon Wahl of Somerset Planning and Engineering Services, the project’s engineer. “A lot of it will depend on how the winter treats us.”

During the past few years, the pieces have slowly fallen into place for the new business park.

In 2006, Somerset County received $3.46 million in funding from the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Half of that allocation was a grant, with the rest coming in the form of a low-interest loan.

The following year, Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill to sell more than 100 acres of land to the county’s general authority. The parcel had been part of the former state hospital complex and was known to some as the “old state farm.”

Now, work is beginning. Wahl said the demolition job, to take place along Route 31, is moving forward.

“They’re moving equipment in right now,” he said.

Next comes extension of a natural-gas line that currently ends at New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co. to the southeast. In cooperation with Columbia Gas, workers will lengthen the line by

6,900 feet – more than a mile – to bring gas service to the business park.

Crews also will install roads, underground power lines and high-speed internet capability at the site.

“We want to have a business park that is truly as prepared as possible to have companies coming in,” Wahl said. “All the utilities will be there.”

Water also is readily available, thanks to the county’s new Quemahoning Pipeline that ends near the park.

Without the pipeline, Wahl said. “I’m not sure we would have had the water to do this.”

Officials say they already have had inquiries from companies interested in locating at the park. Wahl said the county has prospective tenants that are “verbally committed to coming here.”

The park’s location is its key asset. It is highly visible, bordered by Route 31 to the north, Route 219 to the west and the turnpike to the south.

“A lot of folks like the fact that this can be seen from the turnpike,” Wahl said.

Somerset’s turnpike interchange is only about three miles away from the business park, and there are three Route 219 interchanges in the Somerset area.

However, officials are cognizant that traffic from the business park could further congest East Main Street in Somerset Borough. One potential solution would be a new Route 219 interchange at Route 31, a project that county commissioners have lobbied for.

But a new highway interchange carried an estimated $24 million price tag in 2007, and there have been no commitments by state or federal officials since then.

“That’s never gone anywhere,” county Commissioner John Vatavuk said, adding that officials have been focused on obtaining funding for extending four-lane Route 219 in the southern part of the county.

“I don’t want to divert any efforts away from getting the highway finished,” Vatavuk said.