New Sanatoga ramp moves forward
LIMERICK » Ten years in the making, construction for a longpromised new ramp for the Sanatoga Interchange on Route 422 may actually be on the horizon.
Tuesday night, Limerick Township Supervisors unanimously approved putting the project out to bid, a process that will occur in October and November, according to Township Manager Dan Kerr.
The project has been needed since the Philadelphia Premium Outlets and Costco projects were completed on the Limerick side of Evergreen Road, significantly increasing traffic.
On the Lower Pottsgrove side, work is expected to begin on Sanatoga Green before the year is out. That mixed use development will provide just under 500 new homes as well as two medical office buildings.
Both townships have worked jointly with PennDOT on the interchange project.
Kerr said it has received $2.1 million in funding from the federal government and both Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove are providing matching funding.
If the schedule holds, the bids will be reviewed and awarded by the Lower Pottsgrove-based engineering firm Traffic Planning
and Design, in November and December.
Construction on the project would take about nine months, with completion coming in October of 2021, said Kerr.
The new ramp would eliminate the left-hand turn traffic headed away from the outlets has to take in order to get on Route 422 headed west. This turn frequently causes back-ups along Evergreen Road.
Plans also exist for a new eastbound ramp. Similarly, this would eliminate the left-hand turn traffic
headed toward the outlets must take in order to get onto Route 422 headed east.
However, there is currently no government funding for the project, which Kerr said is estimated to cost between $4.1 million and $4.5 million.
There, as it stands, the two townships will look to developers, whose projects increase the traffic the interchange must handle, to help cover some of those costs, said Kerr.