More construction coming on Route 6

Road widening project will cut three lanes to two for a year WESTFALL — Relief will come eventually, but motorists are going to be facing more delays along US Route 6/209 in Westfall. A year-long road widening project is expected to begin in the spring of 2012, PennDOT says. The project is being engineered and will be built by Jacobs Engineering out of their West Chester office. The scope of the road widening is going to be from the entranceway of Delaware Valley High School campus east to the signal at the intersection by Price Chopper. The road currently has areas which go back and forth from two lanes of traffic each way to one lane of traffic then back to two lanes. This 1.75 mile section will be made into a four-lane roadway, two lanes of traffic both heading east and west. There will also be a fifth left-hand turning lane where necessary. Turning lanes now without traffic lights will now have left turn traffic lights. Jacobs’ engineer Roman Prokopovych told the Courier the estimated cost for the project is going to be $7 million. Jacobs’ engineer, Stanley Niemczak said they intend to maintain one lane of traffic in each direction during all stages of construction. The rest of the work PennDOT and Jacobs Engineering made a joint presentation to the Westfall Township Supervisors Tuesday night. The project will include resurfacing, rehabilitation and restoration of this section of road. There will also be grade adjustments made to Interstate Highway 84 along the horizontal curve at the interstate east-bound ramps. There will also be traffic signal upgrades and new timing sequences. Construction of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) including Dynamic Message Signs (DMS) in advance of the I-84 east and west bound on-ramps to warn drivers of any traffic or road conditions they should be aware of, signing and road striping improvements, stormwater management improvements with regard to stormwater runoff, erosion and sedimentation control are also part of the improvement. Niemczak told the supervisors they expect to have the final designs of the project ready by next year with construction expected to begin in 2012. “We have done traffic counts in both winter and summer and prepared traffic signal timing reports for the eight traffic signals which will be part of the construction,” said Niemczak. Township concerns During the presentation Township Solicitor Robert Bernathy asked one of the township employees to explain problems Westfall has had with flooding and wanted the engineeers to be aware of this while the project is still in the planning stages. Westfall Supervisor Raymond Banach addressed the speakers to let them know the traffic congestion along this corridor of roadway can be backed up as far west as Milford and as far east as the Hampton Inn with the current mostly two lanes of roadway. “If it goes down to just one lane in each direction it is going to be worse,” stated Banach. For more information, contact Gregory Scochin, assistant liasion engineer for PennDOT at 570 963-4061 or email grscochin@state.pa.us .