NORRISTOWN — The Monday afternoon groundbreaking ceremony for the $11.5 million Lafayette Street corridor project attracted nearly 100 state and local leaders and community members to the intersection of Ford and Lafayette streets.
“Today we break ground on a transformative project more than a decade in the making,” said Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairman Josh Shapiro. “It will open up a critical corridor to our county seat, create jobs, make our waterfront more accessible and ease congestion.”
The 0.6-mile extension of the existing Lafayette Street, from Ford Street to Conshohocken Road, will have two lanes in each direction and a 12-foot landscaped median in the center. The Schuylkill River Trail will be relocated and become the sidewalk for the Lafayette Street extension.
Shapiro said the project began in March 2000 when the commissioners awarded a $50,000 contract in March 2000 to improve road access to Norristown. He thanked former Congressman Joseph Hoeffel for securing a $10 million federal highway grant in 2001 that was followed by an additional $20 million “obtained by Hoeffel, Congressman (James) Gerlach and (U.S.) Senator (Arlen) Specter” for the project.
“This project is critical to both Plymouth and Norristown,” Shapiro said. “It will improve access to both municipalities, increase traffic flow and reduce congestion on Ridge Pike and Main Street and will encourage development of Norristown’s downtown and its under-utilized riverfront area.”
“This is how government is supposed to work. With everyone working together,” Shapiro said. “It’s also an example of the critical role that government can play when we work together at each level - federal, state, county and local.”
Montgomery County Vice Chairman Leslie Richards said the project would “change the way Norristown is perceived.”
“This is a huge day for transportation,” Richards said. “I’m very excited to see the changes coming over the next years.”
The $11.5 million extension of Lafayette Street, from Ford Street to Conshohocken Road in Plymouth, will include two lanes in each direction, a 12-foot landscaped center median and the relocation of the Schuylkill River Trail to serve as a sidewalk
Crandall Jones, the Norristown municipal administrator, called the road project “an economic infusion of capital into the community.”
“We are excited to partner with everyone,” Jones said, “and we are looking forward to seeing this transformation come to life.”
Plymouth Council Chairman Sheldon Simpson said the project would relieve the “congestion of traffic on Ridge Pike” for Plymouth residents.
“This project will open up Ridge Pike,” Simpson said. “Over the next 15 years it will open up new opportunities for businesses on Conshohocken Road. We’re excited by that prospect.”
The 15-month project, the first of three contracts, will be completed with 80 percent federal funding and 20 percent funding from Montgomery County.
The extension of Lafayette Street will continue in August 2014 with a second contract for about $20 million. That contract award will be made in spring 2014.
The second project will extend Lafayette Street to Diamond Avenue in Plymouth and reconstruct and widen Diamond Avenue, as well as Ridge Pike from the Pennsylvania Turnpike bridge to the Norristown border line. As part of Phase II, the Conshohocken Road connection to Ridge Pike will be abandoned, and the Diamond Avenue intersection with Ridge Pike will replace it with a new traffic light. Phase II will take two years to complete and will be finished in summer 2016. Funding for the second contract has already been secured.
A third contract of about $20 million to widen the existing Lafayette Street in Norristown will be awarded in late 2015 and begin in spring 2016.
The reconstruction and widening of the existing Lafayette Street in Norristown, from Ford Street to Barbadoes Street, will include two lanes in each direction and the landscaped median. The Schuylkill River Trail in that area will be relocated and rebuilt. The two-year project, to be completed in late 2017, has not been funded yet.
Hoeffel, a former Montgomery County commissioner, attended the groundbreaking along with former county commissioners Jim Matthews and Ruth Damsker.
Hoeffel called the road project an “economic development opportunity of the highest order. It is huge to open up the Norristown waterfront and it will grant enough access to encourage development of the waterfront.”
Source: TimesHerald.com
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