Expansion of Lehigh County-owned Cedarbrook nursing home has been delayed. Here’s why

The over-$100 million expansion of Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehab in South Whitehall Township will miss its original completion goal, as Lehigh County works to address loose soil under the construction site’s foundation.

The soil conditions will delay the first phase of the expansion into, tentatively, late 2025, General Services Director Rick Molchany said, with the county working over the next month to design a method for solidifying and stabilizing the underground.

“Where we’re at right now is, we’re still underground,” he said. “We’re not at the setting [of] the foundation, and we’re about a year behind on this. This is critical.”

Phase 1 calls for building a four-story, 240-bed addition, allowing the nursing home to decrease the number of residents in a room and replacing communal restrooms with in-room bathrooms.

Molchany said that this phase’s original price tag, $47 million, included contingency funds for potential issues, but it’s still too early to determine if Lehigh County would incur any additional costs due to the soil stabilization.

The county uncovered the soil concerns around last spring and summer, according to Molchany, who added that major storms caused by climate change contributed to the problem.

“We’re seeing 100-year storms happen monthly,” he said. “We’re seeing 500-year storms happen annually. And where’s that water going? On a developed environment, it floods out the rivers and streams, and creates issues. It gets into the subsurface and starts to erode that very delicate limestone, which then creates sinkholes, which then creates unwanted subsurface conditions.”

Molchany assured, however, that such soil conditions don’t endanger the current Cedarbrook infrastructure.

The dissolving of bedrock being seen at Cedarbrook is known as karst conditions, which affects about 20% of the country, according to the National Park Service.

The expansion of Cedarbrook — one of 17 county-owned care homes in the state — has been over a decade in the making. County officials broke ground on the project in 2021. The project received a financial boost over the summer when U.S. Sen. Bob Casey announced $525,000 in federal funding for the project.

The second phase of the work, costing roughly $45 million, would renovate the facility’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, as well as adjust the air conditioning system.

Originally scheduled to finish in 2029, that deadline could also be subject to delay, Molchany said. He added that he would present the second phase as part of the county’s new capital plan to the board of commissioners by the end of June.

Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong said Friday his priorities include making sure no corners are cut when it comes to properly expanding the facility, and that Cedarbrook still provides a high level of care regardless of any construction delays.

“We’re doing that,” he said.

Commissioners Chair Geoff Brace affirmed the county’s desire to support and complete the expansion, praising the staff and leadership at Cedarbrook despite the resource and staffing shortages plaguing the nursing home industry.

“I’m committed to seeing it through,” Brace said, adding that the delay isn’t compromising the care at Cedarbrook.

He said the board wouldn’t need to approve any sort of design change for the expansion but that it would need to approve any budgetary changes.

Commissioner Dan Hartzell, who is also the chair of the county’s Cedarbrook committee, said he was disappointed when he heard about the delay but that the county is still “riveted” to make the expansion happen as efficiently as possible.

Jason Cumello, the administrator and director of Cedarbrook, couldn’t be reached for comment.

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