Middletown's immense winter storm center under construction on Route 413

JD Mullane, Bucks County Courier Times
Updated ·2 min read

Middletown will complete its enormous winter operations center at its Public Works Department headquarters by first week of May.

Last week, Scott Contractors began framing the center's 70,000-square-foot salt storage shed, which is more like a warehouse. The salt shed will rise nearly 50 feet from its foundations at the township's Public Works Dept. at 700 Veterans Highway in Levittown.

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"Concrete walls are up eight feet, and above that, it's wood," said site superintendent Joe Meiers. "It's wood because salt will basically eat anything but wood."

A separate brine mixing center, where salt and water will be mixed, loaded onto trucks and carried to the streets, will be ready by next winter.

Workmen build Middletown's state-of-the-art winter salt shed and brine facility at 700 Veterans Highway/Route 413 in Levittown on Thursday Feb. 22, 2024. The project is set for completion in May.
Workmen build Middletown's state-of-the-art winter salt shed and brine facility at 700 Veterans Highway/Route 413 in Levittown on Thursday Feb. 22, 2024. The project is set for completion in May.

The township board of supervisors approved the move to a state-of-the-art facility last June when Public Works could no longer repair the brine mixing equipment, which is about 15 years old.

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“It was so old we couldn’t get parts for it,” said township Manager Stephanie Teoli Kuhls.

The winter operations center will have a salt shed in which trucks pull in one end, load, and exit the other end, a streamlined process. The new brine mixing equipment, described as “gigantic” by the township manager, will also be located at the facility.

View of Middletown's salt shed from Veteran's Highway/Route 413 in Levittown.
View of Middletown's salt shed from Veteran's Highway/Route 413 in Levittown.

Middletown, which is 23 square miles, was among the first municipalities in Bucks County to brine its streets. It’s considered among the most effective ways to keep streets passable in a snow or freezing rain. Brine prevents snow and ice from sticking to the road, delaying snow accumulation and making it easier to plow, according to the township web site.

“It’s a cost-saving, proactive approach to treating roadways,” it says.

JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Middletown's winter operations center under construction on Route 413