Trucks still passing through Palmerton to a project off Route 248 helped clear the way for the USNS Comfort, the site’s developers said in a news release Monday.

Phase III Environmental and Northface Development said the federal project it took on was “instrumental” to making way for the U.S. Navy ship to port Monday morning.

The Comfort, a symbol of hope in one the nation’s COVID-19 hot spots, will treat hospital patients who have not contracted the virus but still need care.

The nearly 900-foot-long oil tanker turned hospital vessel is equipped with 1,000 beds and 12 operating rooms.

“This effort will hasten the eventual successful control of COVID-19,” according to Phase III and Northface’s release.

Last Friday, Donna McGarry, Palmerton Borough manager, said Phase III received national security clearance for what McGarry called a “harbor project.”

McGarry said the materials being brought into Palmerton are coming from a harbor near New York and Newark, New Jersey.

As of Friday afternoon, McGarry said she was still waiting on confirmation of Phase III’s clearance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New York which, alongside the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, were overseeing the work.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Press Office did not respond to requests from the Times News for information, but a state official confirmed last week that Phase III had taken on a federal job.

Colleen Connolly, community relations coordinator for DEP’s Northeast division, said via email that the material being brought under the Corps’ project consists mostly of clay, silt and sand. “The project is slated to receive 76,000 cubic yards,” Connolly said. Phase III started receiving the “material” back in February.

Connolly noted that the material still meets the state department’s regulated fill requirements.

Residents’ concerns around Phase III’s project in Palmerton has been the subject of ongoing scrutiny. But Tiffany Brown was still surprised to see trucks traveling past her home on Mauch Chunk Road last month while the rest of the county — and the country — shut down.

Brown’s husband, Justin, is a truck driver, so she said she has nothing against the profession. But the trucks coming down Mauch Chunk often speed, and the drivers don’t always stay in their lanes. As a mother, Brown said, that worries her.

She also worries about what’s being brought into town by the trucks and what little the residents know about it.

Brown said when she bought her home on Mauch Chunk Road more than a decade ago, it was quiet — or at least, quieter than it is today.

“It’s a different environment,” she said, “because now I’m concerned about my health, and my daughter’s health … and the traffic. Like, all the basic concerns of an owner of a home on this street.”

The U.S. Army Corps project should finish this week, Phase III and Northface said.

In the meantime, any complaints should be directed to John Smith, the release states. Smith is available at 570-817-2636, and he is on-site when it is operating.

Home of the former New Jersey Zinc West Plan, Phase III has said the lot off Route 248 is being poised to hold the forthcoming Northface Industrial Complex.