 |
Photo by Evan Brandt
NEWEST ADDITION: Michael Tantorno's children hold The Bible as he takes the oath of office Monday night as Lower Pottsgrove's newest police officer as administered by District Judge Edward Kropp while his family, Police Chief Mike Foltz and township commissioners look on. He will fill the vacancy left by Sgt. Bob Greenwood, who retired last week after 34 years of service.
|
Talk about burying the lead.
It wasn't until the very end of last night's Lower Pottsgrove Commissioners meeting that Township Manager Ed Wagner broke the big news.
For the past six years, residents and drivers on Route 422 have been dealing with the $307 million project to replace two bridges over the Schuylkill River, at Armand Hammer Boulevard, over the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks, as well as pavement and access ramp re-construction.
Well, far from being over, another phase is about to begin.
Wagner said he received notice from PennDOT that the roughly five miles from the Royersford to Sanatoga interchanges is the next area to be under construction.
The work is slated to begin this spring and will last into 2021, Wagner said.
Pavement will be repaired and replaced, as will bridge decking along with drainage repairs and the installation of rumble strips.
"Lane closures will occur on the non-peak hours," said Wagner in what could certainly be called cold comfort to those whose patience has already been frayed daily by six years of delays and construction.
But that's not all folks.
 |
The construction of one of two new Route 422 bridges
over the Schuylkill photographed in 2014.
|
According to the web site set up by PennDOT to track Route 422 work, more is coming.
Design work is currently underway for work on 1.7 miles of expressway from the bridge over the railroad to the bridge over Park Road.
A $60 million, four-year project, the site anticipates the project to go out to bid in the summer of 2020, while the work in Limerick is still going on.
This project includes two bridges carrying Pleasantview Road and Park Road over U.S. 422, and two bridges carrying U.S. 422 over Porter Road, Sanatoga Road and Sanatoga Creek. One culvert at Sprogels Run, located just east of Porter Road, will be removed and a new two-span structure will be built over Porter Road and Sprogels Run. The acceleration lane for the westbound on-ramp from the Sanatoga Interchange will also be improved as part of this phase.
The $35.6 million project on the section of highway from the Berks County Line, east through the Stowe interchange now underway is expected to be finished by this coming October.
And next month, final design is set to begin on the section of Route 422 from the Keim Street interchange to the Route 724 interchange.
This $40 million project will last three years with the earliest bidding date coming in summer of 2021, according to the site, which was last updated in November.
Parking Changes
In the headaches-for-drivers department, the township commissioners also authorized the advertisement of a change in parking restrictions on Hause Avenue.
After police conducted a safety study, the department recommended, and the commissioners agreed, that no parking restrictions should be extended from the intersection with High Street north past the curve in the road that makes it dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment