Traffic Signal Grants Headed to Lower Salford, Collegeville

HARRISBURG PA – A portion of a more than $30 million in Pennsylvania grants, intended to upgrade municipal traffic signals, is coming to Montgomery, Berks, and Chester counties.

The Shapiro administration on Wednesday (July 31, 2024) indicated about 10 percent of that total, more than $3.1 million, was allocated to the Tri-County area. Local recipients that will directly benefit are Collegeville Borough and Lower Salford Township, both in Montgomery County.

Other Tri-County beneficiaries include Abington, Lower Gwynedd, Towamencin, and Whitemarsh townships, also in Montgomery County; West Reading Borough and Exeter Township, Berks County; and West Whiteland Township, Chester County.

The state’s list of approved local upgrades include:

• Lower Salford, which will receive $442,464 to modernize the existing traffic signal at Main Street and Maple Avenue; and also receive $268,220 to modernize the existing traffic signal at Main Street and Hunsberger Lane; and
• Collegeville, which will receive $264,540 for updated detection and controller equipment. Improvements will be made at Main Street and 5th Avenue, Main Street and 3rd Avenue, 2nd Avenue and Freeland Drive, 2nd Avenue and Park Avenue, and 2nd Avenue and a nearby Wawa driveway.

Overall, 73 municipalities are winners

Seventy-three municipalities are sharing the distributed total. The largest grant amount, $4.7 million, goes to the city of Philadelphia to modernize 16 traffic signals along its 15th Street Corridor. The smallest amount, $14,800, will be used by Towanda Borough in Bradford County for traffic signal re-timing along its Main Street.

The money comes from the state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) “Green Light-Go” program. Its goal is to increase “safety and mobility across Pennsylvania communities by relieving congestion and improving traffic flow,” the department said.

Green Light-Go grants serve to reimburse municipalities for updates that improve the efficiency and operation of existing traffic signals.

The upgrades are expected to rely on “newer technologies in detection,” PennDOT added. Those improvements should “allow traffic signals to respond to real-time traffic demand,” it explained.

Photo by Igor Vetushko on Deposit Photos, used by Travels With The Post under license