Montco Commissioners Funding New Traffic Signal for Upper Perk
PENNSBURG — The Montgomery County Commissioners presented the Upper Perkiomen Valley Regional Planning Commission with a $77,539 check at its recent meeting for the County’s share of a new traffic signal.
Installation of the new signal at Main and 11th streets on the border of Pennsburg and Red Hill boroughs is set to begin this fall and be complete early next year.
Montgomery County Commissioners Chairman Jim Matthews told the board the County was funding this particular project because of the regional cooperation shown by the five municipalities that make up the regional planning commission.
Those municipalities, the Upper Perkiomen School District pooled their money and grant from the state to fund $172,400 of the estimated cost of the project. The County was able to fund the remainder because of lower than expected bids on four initial Jump Start programs.
Jump Start is a series of traffic improvement projects undertaken to demonstrate who a proposed $150 million program could improve the quality of life for County residents. A referendum asking voters to support a bond program for traffic improvements is expected to go to voters next year.
After the much-publicized collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis two years ago, the state and federal governments have clearly indicated that all of their transportation dollars for the foreseeable future will be used to fix existing roads and bridges that are wearing out.
“People sitting in traffic jams always ask: ‘When are they going to do something about this?,” Matthews said. “For the foreseeable future, we as the County in partnership with the municipalities are going to have to be the they.”
