Beating traffic: Town gets $280K grant
‘Green Light Go’ program will upgrade signals on Broad, Seventh streets
>> A grant announced this week could mean another round of improvements for traffic safety and flow in Lansdale.
Borough officials announced details Wednesday night on how they plan to use new grant funds now coming to town.
“Late this morning, we found out from (State Rep.) Steve Malagari’s office, that the borough has received $280,000 in this round of ‘Green Light Go’ funding,” said borough Manager John Ernst.
Lansdale initially applied for the grant in early 2020, before all such state funds were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the manager told council’s administration and finance committee Wednesday night.
“What this will do is, this is for us to go out and upgrade seven different traffic signal locations, along the Seventh Street and Broad Street corridors,” he said.
Since 2012 borough staff have developed a long-term technology plan that identifies all of the town’s technology on interactive online maps, and have pursued several projects to replace hardwired signals using incandescent light
bulbs with more efficient LEDs connected by fiber optic lines. The borough’s latest capital plan from fall 2019 lists roughly two dozen traffic signals as in need of upgrades, including signals on Broad at its intersections with Vine Street, Hancock Street and Whites Road, and on Seventh at Lansdale Avenue, Line Street, N. Broad, Maple Avenue and Cannon Avenue, with those signals last updated from 1994 to 2005.
The latest grant-funded upgrades will likely include new pre-emption equipment such as radar meant to detect oncoming vehicles at the intersection, fiber optic lines to connect those signals with others elsewhere in the town, according to Ernst and Electric Superintendent Andy Krauss. Councilman Leon Angelichio asked if the grant funds could also be used for physical infrastructure improvements like markings on the roadways, and Ernst and Krauss said they would investigate.
The total estimated project cost submitted to the state was roughly $350,000, according to the manager, leaving a required borough match of 20 percent of $70,000 to go alongside the grant. Lansdale’s award was one of 50 announced by Governor Tom Wolf this week under the “Green Light Go” program, totaling over $15.6 million in signal upgrades and mobility improvements across the state.
“The safety improvements supported by the Green Light-Go program not only help municipalities relieve congestion and traffic flow, they help Pennsylvanians move safely and efficiently,” said Wolf in a statement.
“I’m proud to help our communities improve mobility for Pennsylvanians,” he said.
Other grant awards in Montgomery County under the same round of funding include roughly $490,000 for Abington Township to modernize traffic signals at Meetinghouse Road/Beverly Road/ Fairy Hill Road and Jenkintown Road/Forrest Avenue; $261,000 for East Greenville Borough for modernization of a signal at Fourth & Main Street; $527,000 for Lower Moreland Township for upgrades at five intersections; and $148,000 for Upper Moreland Township for similar upgrades to four intersections along
N. York Road.
“This funding from PennDOT’s Green LightGo Program will help Lansdale improve traffic flow throughout the borough, thereby relieving long wait times at several traffic lights,” Malagari said.
Lansdale was one of 50 municipalities throughout the state selected to receive a grant, he added, and a full list of grant recipients statewide was posted by Wolf’s office.
“I’ve heard from multiple Lansdale residents about heavy traffic and the need to reassess traffic signals, so I’m proud to help secure this funding,” Malagari said.
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on July 21 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine St. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.