Study Recommends Upgrades to High Street

A section of West High Street in Pottstown where a new study has suggested reducing vehicles lanes from four, to two each way with a center turn lane, to make room for bike lanes.

Changes have been recommended for High Street from the Berks County line to the border between Lower Pottsgrove and Limerick.

Those changes, proposed in a study by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, were reviewed Wednesday night by the Pottstown Metropolitan Regional Planning Committee.

The more local committee is comprised of officials from eight adjacent municipalities -- Pottstown, West Pottsgrove, Lower Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove, New Hanover, Douglass (Mont.), North Coventry and East Coventry. 

Danielle Baer, a planner with the Montgomery County Planning Commission, which advises the local group, reviewed the findings starting with the western end of High Street in Stowe, including more sidewalks for the north side of West High Street.. 

The study also suggested reducing the four lanes of traffic on High Street in West Pottsgrove to three lanes, two travel lanes with a center turn lane. That would allow room for bike lanes, said Baer.

The suggestion was also broached earlier this month by Montgomery county with Pottstown Borough Council for the borough's section of West High Street, from the township line to the Manatawny Street bridge.

And while council did not reject the idea, the West Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners already has, according to Pete LaRosa, a township commissioner who represents West Pottsgrove with the planning group.

Regional Planners discuss improvements to High Street

in downtown Pottstown Wednesday night.

For the area of downtown Pottstown, from Manatawny to Adams streets, the study suggests lighting improvements, way-finding signs, a project which is evidently already underway by Pottstown Area Industrial Development Inc., as well as consistent bus stop designs.

For the area from Adams Street to Keim Street, the study recommends mid-block crossings, for those crossing between the north and south sides of High Street.

The area of High Street from Keim Street to Sunnybrook Road in Lower Pottsgrove area passes trough a more traditional, car-based commercial area, one which would benefit from some street trees, primarily on the north side, according to the study.

As that area is re-developed, the study also suggested reducing the number of curb cuts.

And from Sunnybook road through Lower Pottsgrove to Rupert Road, more sidewalks were recommended as well as improvements to the intersections with have the most recorded accidents, Pleasantview Road and Rupert Road.

Given that Lower Pottsgrove Township is in the midst of accepting bids for a new municipal building on the southeast corner of High and Pleasantview, which will result in increased police traffic through that intersections, improvements seem particularly prudent.