New Chestnut Street layout after the completion of the project.

Construction activities for the Chestnut Street Repaving and Safety Project, which will provide traffic calming and create a high-quality bicycle connection between West Philly and Center City, are scheduled to begin Tuesday, June 7, according to an announcement today by the City of Philadelphia Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability (OTIS).

In addition to repaving Chestnut Street with fresh asphalt, the following improvements are planned from 34th to 63rd Streets:

• New lane lines and roadway layout
• New crosswalks and flexible delineator posts
• A new parking separated bikeway from 63rd to 45th Streets Continue Reading

Indego bike share stations in West Philly.

The city’s bike sharing program, Indego, continues its expansion in West Philadelphia. The organization recently announced its plans to bring more bike share stations to the Spruce Hill area. Currently, these plans include the installation of new stations at the following locations:

• 40th and Walnut

• 41st and Chestnut

• 41st and Woodland

In addition, the Indego system has continued its expansion further west in the recent months. Since the beginning of the year, new bike docking stations were installed at 53rd and Baltimore, 50th and Haverford, ParkWest Town Center (1575 N 52nd St) and other locations. Plans for this year also included the installation of Indego stations in the Kingsessing area. To see the map of all Philly bike share stations, go here. Continue Reading

Saint Joseph’s University‘s acquisition of USciences, located on Woodland Ave. in West Philly, became official today. UScience’s campus near the southern tip of Clark Park is now the “University City Campus” of St. Joe’s, making it the fourth largest university in the city behind Temple, Drexel and Penn.

With hot weather starting to set in in the area, Philadelphia Parks & Rec has opened spraygrounds around the city ahead of the summer public pool season which kicks off in mid- to late-June. The city has over 90 spraygrounds and sites with some water features, all of which are now open to keep residents cool, according to the Parks & Rec website.

Spraygrounds will stay open until Labor Day and will operate 7 days a week (with exceptions for inclement weather) with the following hours: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 12-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Here is the list of spraygrounds operating in West Philadelphia (for more locations, visit this page): Continue Reading

This spring and summer, SEPTA will be conducting a trolley track renovation project along 40th Street between Powelton Ave. and Spruce St. and at 42nd and Spruce. Vehicular traffic will be restricted in the work areas and the Route 40, 30, and 42 buses will be impacted at times.

Pre-construction work is scheduled to begin Tuesday, May 31 and may affect traffic and parking along 40th Street between Powelton and Filbert.

More extensive work is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 13. It will affect 40th Street from Filbert to Chestnut. This work will continue through July 1. Work is scheduled to resume Aug. 1 (no work is planned for July) and will take place on 40th St. from Chestnut to Spruce. This portion of 40th Street trolley tracks is expected to be renovated by August 19th. Continue Reading

All that’s left of the strip mall on the north side of the 4300 block of Chestnut Street.

A seven-story 275-unit apartment complex is coming to the 4300 block of Chestnut Street – the site of the former strip mall and parking lot. Construction has already begun – the strip mall buildings have been recently demolished to make room for the complex.

The complex will include retail space on the ground floor and an underground garage with 75 parking spaces. The plans for this development were announced last summer and renderings were revealed last fall. Continue Reading