Phoenixville OKs $100K for Trail Over Bridge

Photos by Evan Brandt

Two riders who rode the Schuylkill River Trail from Royersford, cross the bridge over the Schuylkill River from Mont Clare into Phoenixville along a narrow stretch of sidewalk borough officials hope to widen.

This drawing shows the current traffic configuration on
the Mont Clare bridge, top, and the proposed changes.

In order to keep a project 20 years in the making on track, Phoenxiville Borough Council voted 7-1 Tuesday night to spend $100,000 toward the cost of a project to widen the Mont Clare bridge over the Schuylkill River into the borough.

The purpose of the $1.4 million project is to improve access to the Schuylkill River Trail.

Councilwoman Dana Dugan cast the vote against the move, saying she questioned why the borough should be fronting $100,000 with no pledges of funding from the other municipalities that will benefit -- Chester County, Montgomery County and Upper Providence Township.

But Board President James Kovaleski said he is willing to take that risk and seek contributions from the other three "on the back end," in order to keep the project moving forward.

This rendering shows what the crossing will look like complete.

The project calls for narrowing the travel lanes for vehicles on the bridge in order to widen the sidewalk that crosses on the bridge on the
north side to nine feet.

That will leave room for a concrete barrier between the vehicles and pedestrians and bicyclists.

When complete, the will provide a crucial link between where the Schuylkill River Trail, traveling upriver from Valley Forge to Mont Clare, crosses the river into Chester County, where a completed portion of the trail in Phoenixville has already been completed.

Eventually, the plan is for the Schuylkill River Trail to extend more than 100 miles from Philadelphia to the river's source near Schuylkill Haven in Schuylkill County.

With this link complete, the only unfinished portion of the trail from Philadelphia to Reading is a four-mile stretch between Park Ford, in East Coventry Township and Pottstown.

Two bikers make their way over the bridge from Mont Clare 

into Phoenixville Tuesday evening.

Last October, Chester County announced plans to complete that section of trail in 2020 and the crossing back over the river into the Pottstown area has already completed.

It was included as part of the new Route 422 bridge between Kenilworth in North Coventry and Armand Hammer boulevard in Lower Pottsgrove.

In April, officials cut the ribbon on a long-delayed crossing of Norfolk-Southern tracks in Pottstown along Industrial Highway which means that portion is officially open as well.

The story of the connection from Mont Clare to Phoenixville goes all the way back to 1999 when the borough received a $760,000 grant to get the project moving, Borough Manager E. Jean Krack told council Tuesday night prior to the vote.

This is what the pedestrian crossing
beneath the freight rail tracks looks
like currently.

In 2011, the Greater Valley Forge Transportation Management Association used a $50,000 grant from the Delware Valley Regional Planning Commission to conduct a feasibility study of the plan.

In 2015, Phoenixville received a $481,900 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for the project and design began in 2016.

Further complicating the project is the fact that although no changes were planned to its bridge over Bridge Street, the trail crossing also must pass beneath the Norfolk Southern freight rail tracks on the Chester County side.

That meant involving the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said Krack.

"If you see what we have to go through to get some of the little projects around here done, you can just imagine the red tape involved with Chester County, Montgomery County, Upper Providence Township, the borough, the state, Norfolk Southern and the Public Utility Commission involved," Krack told the council members by way of explaining why the project has taken so long.

This is what the crossing will look like
when the project is finished.

Last year, PennDOT and the PUC approved the plans for creating an eight-foot crossing beneath the railroad with bollards and a chain to protect walkers and riders.

PennDOT also approved additional funding, but even with that, when the lowest bid were opened earlier this month and came in at $1.4 million, the project was $300,000 short of the amount of money available.

Krack said PennDOT offered to cover $200,000 of that gap if Phoenixville could come up with the other $100,000.

Tuesday night they did.

Kovaleski said the fact that Phoenixville is "the destination" for most of those using the trail is reason enough to make sure the project gets started as soon as possible.

Councilman Edwin Soto said he is frequently asked by residents when this project will see the light of day.

Kovaleski also said getting the project done is a safety benefit as well. "It's quite a harrowing experience to go from the trail over the bridge as it stands now," he said.




One rider who does that all the time, a Royersford resident who identified himself only as Dom, said he crosses the bridge two or three times a week on his bike.

"It's not the best. We have the sidewalk, but there have been times when there are two or three people on the sidewalk when I have been forced to go onto the shoulder," he said.

"I mean it could be bigger. If this sidewalk took up this shoulder, it would be fine," he said.

High Street Traffic Study

Borough council also voted to request that mayor Peter Urscheler instruct the police department to conduct a traffic study of the 400 and 500 block of High Street.

Residents have been complaining about trucks using the street and alleys and that this has caused several accidents.

The traffic study will document how many accidents have occurred there, and will also look at the possibility of creating one way streets there to improve safety, according to the agenda.

Speaking of Mayor Urscheler, here's video of his monthly report to council:

Welcome West Pikeland

In addition to voting to hold a public hearing next month on the Phoenixville Regional Comprehensive Plan Update, council also agreed to allow the potential of another municipality to join the regional planning group.

You can check out the current comprehensive plan here.

Currently, the regional planning group consists of the borough of Phoenixville and the townships of Schuylkill, Charlestown, West Vincent and East Pikeland.

Tuesday night, council voted to allow the exploration of adding West Pikeland, which has asked to join the group. Krack said it will mean updating the just updated comprehensive plan and may also cost the borough more than $23,000, although it could be reduced to about $1,000 if grants being pursued by the Chester County Planning Commission are obtained.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Happier Trails