Allentown traffic improvement plan receives Act 89 funding

More than 80 projects, including several in the Greater Lehigh Valley, will receive money from Pennsylvania’s Act 89, which raised the franchise tax on gasoline, fees on driver licenses and vehicle registrations and fines for motor vehicle violations to pay for transportation improvements.

The state Department of Transportation allocated $2.1 million in Allentown to install responsive traffic lights at 56 intersections, develop a traffic management center and make improvements at Lehigh Street/Union Street and Sixth Street/Union Street. Responsive lights are more responsive to traffic volume in real time.

The Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, Hanover Township, will receive $1.8 million to build an intermodal ground transportation center adjacent to the airport terminal for bus, taxi, shuttle and rental cars.

Construction includes improvements to the airport’s existing roads to accommodate the increase in vehicle volume.

The Charles Chrin Real Estate Trust, Palmer Township, will receive $962,686 for transportation infrastructure improvements in the Chrin Commerce Center to enhance interior roads, bus stops and linkages from the center to nearby bicycle and pedestrian paths.

In Berks County, Sinking Spring will receive $783,805 to reconstruct and realign the intersection of Penn Avenue, Columbia Avenue and Cacoosing Avenue.

Statewide, $84 million in grants, funded by Act 89 of 2013, were announced by PennDOT.

The projects were selected based on criteria including safety benefits, regional economic conditions, technical and financial feasibility, job creation, energy efficiency and operational sustainability.

The projects require a 30 percent match from local sources.

In an unrelated project also funded by Act 89, PennDOT will spend $36 million to replace the western-most Route 422 bridges over the Schuylkill River in Chester and Montgomery counties.

The bridges, which have a daily traffic count of 35,000 vehicles, are deteriorating.

“The adjoining structures in place over the river have experienced serious structural issues over the past decade, including cracks in the steel beams that prompted the closure of the eastbound bridge back in 2003,” PennDOT district executive Lester C. Toaso said.

Crews will work through September 2018 to replace the six-span westbound and eastbound structures in three stages – while keeping one travel lane open in each direction on Route 422 during construction.

The replacement of the twin bridges, built in 1965, marks the second of six projects to move to construction as part of PennDOT’s program to rebuild and improve seven miles of Route 422 between the Berks County line and the Sanatoga Interchange.

Source: LVB.com