Completion urged for Route 309 connector

Borough officials again seek final phase of link to Sumneytown Pike

It’s time the rubber meets the road and the longplanned connector route between Route 309 and Sumneytown Pike at the Kulpsville entrance to the turnpike is completed, Souderton Borough Council members said at the board’s Oct. 9 meeting.

An open house for the planned next section will be held 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19 in the Souderton Area High School cafeteria.

Originally planned to be completed in one phase, the project next went to two phases and is now at three phases, council Pres-

ident Brian Goshow said.

The first part, from Sumneytown Pike to Allentown Road, was completed in 2012. The next part, which is the portion that will be displayed at the open house, is to extend the connector to Township Line Road on the Franconia/Hatfield border. The third and final phase would complete the project.

State funding plans for future roadwork do not currently include any money for the final phase, though, Goshow said.

“So I think the writing’s on the wall that the earliest you would ever see completion of the 309 connector actually connecting to 309 would probably be 2025 at the very earliest would be my guess,” he said.

“The take I get from this is: You’re invited to the Kool-Aid,” Goshow said of the open house.

“They’re going to tell you what a great project this is and how awesome it is and there’s funding and we’re going to be able to take this to Township Line Road,” Goshow said, “and I think the obvious question needs to be: At what point in time are we going to be able to talk about making this the 309 connector?”

Along with showing drawings of the planned work and information, the open house is for people to give feedback, council member Jeff Gross said.

“The more people that go and check it out, they might get a lot of feedback saying why aren’t you finishing this?” Gross said.

Borough officials expect the completed connector to remove much of the tractor trailer traffic now using Main Street Souderton as part of its route to local meat packing plants.

Council member Dan Yocum said part of his job at

Univest is to give new hires a tour of Souderton.

This month, as he and the 30 new employees were walking down Broad Street, a full cattle truck drove past; as they were walking back, an empty one passed, he said.

“Two cattle trucks in five minutes,” Yocum said.

“It’s not a great welcome to Souderton,” he said.

In another matter at the meeting, Borough Manager Mike Coll said work continues at the former train station in preparation for the planned new restaurant to be operated by a partnership of the owners of Boardroom Spirits and Butcher and Barkeep.

The borough leases the train station and its two accompanying buildings from SEPTA and, after renovating the buildings, is planning to sublease to businesses for economic development.

In August, the borough prepared a letter of intent for a business that was interested in renting one of the two accompanying buildings — the wait building — with an Oct. 1 deadline for the letter of intent to be signed by the business, Coll said.

The business initially said they planned to sign the agreement, but that didn’t happen, he said.

“As of today, they still have not, so I’m planning on putting that back on the market,” Coll said.

The other accompanying building — the freight building — is also on the market to be rented, he said.