Board OKs grant applications for Forty Foot bottleneck, Kriebel Road trail
State funds sought to complete two longdiscussed projects
TOWAMENCIN » Two new grant applications are now in the works, including one that could help Towamencin fix a notorious traffic trouble spot.
Township supervisors voted Wednesday night to approve two new grant requests, one of which was suggested by the highest levels of state government.
“We had a meeting two weeks ago with Secretary of Transportation (Leslie) Richards — she came down here and met with township staff, our consultants, local PennDOT officials, and our traffic engineer. It was a very productive meeting,” said supervisors’ Chairman Chuck Wilson.
The main topic of conversation, according to Wilson, was a trouble spot the township has discussed for years: a bottleneck on Forty
Foot Road, where the road narrows from five lanes to three just south of Tomlinson Road, heading south toward Sumneytown Pike. Last year the board authorized an application to PennDOT for funds from its Multimodal Transportation Grant Program seeking at least part of the roughly $2.6 million estimated project cost to cover that road widening.
“At that meeting, Secretary Richards suggested that, in addition to the grant (application) we currently have in, that we apply for this grant as well, so they could possibly split our need on the project between the two grant programs,” Wilson said.
The second grant application for the same project would be administered by the state’s Commonwealth Financing Authority’s Multimodal Transportation Fund, and the deadline for grant applications is July 31. The township is requesting $1.85 million in grant money, to be matched by a contribution of $801,000 from private developers, likely the developer planning to expand the nearby Towamencin Village shopping center by adding a movie theater there.
The board voted unanimously to authorize the grant submission, and also unanimously approved another for an unrelated project.
The state’s Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside Grant Program, formerly known as the Transportation Alternatives Program, will begin another funding cycle in summer with $55 million available statewide and $11 million in the greater Philadelphia region for transportation-related projects, according to Wilson.
Projects eligible for the grant funding include bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and in recent years Towamencin has developed plans to build a trail along the path of the Kriebel Road interceptor, a pipeline being installed in the area of Kriebel Road. Township wastewater engineering consultant Gilmore & Associates has developed a proposal to seek funds for construction of the trail, and the board voted to accept a request from Gilmore to prepare a grant application seeking funds for completion of the trail.