Philadelphia residents frustrated over months-long project tearing up street

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Construction frustrations are piling up at one Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood.

Neighbors on the 5800 block of Penn Street say the block has been in disarray for months.

"We can't even find parking. We have to detour around to figure it out," said Hector Olivo of Northeast Philadelphia. "It's just getting worse and worse."

"It's frustrating. The children can't walk up here, they got to be careful," said another neighbor to Action News. "It's just horrible, we don't know what could happen."

Neighbors say it began with a project by the water department to repair water lines in March, but little work has been done since to complete it.

"They never came back. No one followed up, and the calls are not even being answered at this point. Emails are not being answered, so we don't know what else to do," said Olivo.

Neighbors say the work to fix things has actually broken things further. The street collapsed even more late Sunday night.

A spokesperson for PGW says crews responded and completed minor repairs to a gas pipe.

Neighbors say the growing hole has produced rodents.

"It's been rats coming out too, and we don't have rats around here, so it's a problem," said Tayvon Carpenter, of Northeast Philadelphia.

"It's the rats coming up there that's scary because scared they might breed. Anyone can fall in at nighttime," said Patrick Carr.

Their hope is that this will all be resolved soon.

Action News did contact the Philadelphia Water Department. A spokesperson says they are working to get us an answer.