$1.4M bids OK’d for Rt. 422 ramp at Sanatoga interchange
LIMERICK » There’s good news and better news regarding the long-awaited new ramp at the Sanatoga interchange off Route 422.
The first piece of good news is that Dec. 15, Limerick Supervisors unanimously approved a $1.4 million bid for the construction to begin.
The second piece of good news is that the low bidder for the project, Construction Master Services LLC, won the bidding with a price $300,000 less than the project was expecting.
“We had six bidders so it was a good bidding process,” said Township Manager Dan Kerr. “The lowest three were within $40,000 of
each other.”
The supervisors also approved an additional $170,000 for the Lower Pottsgrove firm Traffic Planning and Design to act as on-site inspectors. That aspect of the project was required by the federal government which provided a $2.1 million grant to pay for the project’s design and implementation.
The new ramp will allow shoppers leaving Costco and the Philadelphia Outlets to get onto 422 westbound without having to make the dangerous left across opposing traffic on Evergreen Road.
It is expected to take about 10 months to complete and has been in the discussion and design phases for more than two years.
It was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of 2020.
Traffic at the busy intersection, which often has vehicles lined up along westbound Route 422 during rush hour and holiday shopping times, is only bound to get heavier as a result of a massive housing and commercial development project at the intersection on the Lower Pottsgrove side.
Final plans for the $146 million Sanatoga Green, which includes nearly 500 residential units, as well as two large medical office buildings along the west side of Evergreen Road, were approved by Lower Pottsgrove Township Commissioners in July.
The project has been in the works since 2014, when township commissioners changed the zoning that allows it.
Another 25-acre commercial project adjacent to Sanatoga Green has been discussed on and off for about three years. No formal plans have been submitted to Lower Pottsgrove Township.
The total cost of the westbound ramp project is estimated at about $3 million and Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove townships have made contributions to cover the 30 percent match required by the grant.
That local share is being split between Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove,
with 65 percent of the local share being paid by Limerick.
That money, Kerr said
two years ago, is being drawn out of the traffic impact fees the township has charged developers for
years and no local Limerick tax money is being used to pay the township’s share.
This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.