Board OKs second grant request for realignment of Cowpath, Orvilla roads
HATFIELD TWP. » Township officials are making a second attempt at getting state money to fix one of the Hatfield’s worst traffic spots.
The township commissioners voted unanimously last week to submit a grant application for the remaining cost to fix the intersection of Cowpath and Orvilla roads.
“The township applied, as you know, a few months ago to PennDOT to receive full funding for the realignment of Cowpath and Orvilla roads,” said Township Manager Aaron Bibro.
“This is another grant opportunity, through DCED,” he said.
The new grant application requests $1.919 miillion from the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Commonwealth Financing Authority, roughly four months
after the earlier grant request to PennDOT for the same amount. The offset intersection of Cowpath and Orvilla has been the subject of talks for roughly a decade, as a design for a realignment project creating a new northern portion of Orvilla was first developed in 2008, and added to PennDOT’s “Decade of Investment” plan in 2013.
In 2014-15 the township purchased a former gas station on the north side of the intersection, where the new portion of Orvilla would be created, and in 2016 the township received $280,000 in state grant money to finalize the design. A grant request was submitted in 2016 for roughly $3 million to acquire three houses adjacent to the gas station and construct the new road, and after the township was turned down for that grant request, the board voted on March 14 to acquire two of the three houses using developer contributions and reserve funds, while finalizing the acquisition of the other on March 28. All three acquisitions were done after years of discussion with the three property owners, according to the manager, and the township allowed local police to use the vacant houses for tactical training in early July.
“The local matches have been met: the commissioners bought all of the rightsof-way, the three homes, and the gas station,” Bibro said.
“If we receive either of the two (grants), we’ll be able to realign the intersection. There’ll be no more additional costs,” he said.
If either grant is received, the township could then move ahead with seeking bidders for the construction of the project, which would remove one of the two offset traffic signals and, ideally, smooth out traffic flow at an intersection where roughly 50 accidents have been documented over the past five years.
“We have two opportunities now, coming up in the next few months, and if we can get either one of them, we’ll be able to realign that intersection,” Bibro said.
“That would be significant in a lot of ways,” board President Tom Zipfel replied.
Hatfield’s commissioners next meet at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the township administration building, 1950 School Road. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Hatfield.org or follow @HatfieldPA on Twitter.