4501 Richmond Street

The former Philadelphia Coke Plant (the Site) is located at 4501 Richmond Street in the Bridesburg borough of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between Orthodox Street and Buckius Street. The Site was developed in the mid-1920s to provide manufactured gas to the City of Philadelphia for heating and lighting. From 1929 to 1982, the Philadelphia Coke Co., Inc. used the Site to produce metallurgical coke, which is both a fuel and reactant in the manufacture of steel. Metallurgical coke was made by carbonizing bituminous and anthracite coal in coke ovens.

Site operations concluded in 1989, and approximately 39,000 tons of soil impacted by the former manufacturing operations (i.e., soil impacted with decanter tank tar sludge, spent iron oxide, coke breeze, and coal tar) were excavated and transported for offsite treatment/disposal as part of cleanup activities performed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. All former structures at the Site have been demolished to ground level and underground storage tanks were removed. BP Bridesburg LLC (BPB) purchased and redeveloped the Site for commercial warehousing.

As part of BPB’s redevelopment for commercial warehousing, the Site was cleaned up under Pennsylvania’s Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act of 1995 (Act 2) in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Site redevelopment was performed from June 2022 to July 2024. The cleanup included a combination of engineering and institutional controls as identified below. Residual soil contamination at the Site is isolated beneath engineered caps, such as building floors, asphalt parking lots/roads or soil covers.

Two new warehouses totaling 890,458 square feet were constructed on the 63-acre property. During construction, approximately 66,000 cubic yards (CY) of soil were excavated and consolidated onsite, and approximately 260,000 CY of imported clean fill materials (e.g., clean soil, recycled concrete aggregate, gravel, and topsoil) were placed to develop the Site. In addition, a vapor barrier and passive sub-slab ventilation system were installed underneath the new buildings to prevent potential vapor intrusion into the structures.

A legal document referred to as an Environmental Covenant (EC) will restrict the Site to non-residential use and prohibit groundwater use for potable purposes or other uses that would result in potential exposure. A Post-Remediation Care Plan Site has been developed and requires periodic site inspections, maintenance/repairs to the cap, and periodic reports. A Site Management Plan provides guidelines to follow when planning for and conducting future excavation activities at the Site.

A Final Report about the environmental cleanup activities has been submitted to PADEP. Following PADEP approval of the Final Report, a portion of the property on Buckius Street will be subdivided into a dog park that will be open to the public.

More information about the Site is provided in the documents linked below.

Project Fact Sheet

Public Meeting

August 10, 2021 Meeting Presentation

Project Documents

Electronic copies of documents available here:
Hard copies of the Final Report, RI/CP (with a USB drive containing the electronic attachments), PIP, fact sheet, and response to public comments, available as follows:
- Local Councilman's Office on 7552 Frankford Avenue
  Days/Hours: Open Monday to Friday from 9am-4:30pm.
- Tacony Library on 6742 Torresdale Avenue
  Days/Hours: Open Monday and Tuesday from 11am-7pm and Wednesday through Saturday from 10am-5pm

4501 Richmond Street, Philadelphia, PA

Project Information

Project Fact Sheet

Public Meeting

Project Documents