Portion of South Broad Street in Lansdale to Close for Four Days as Septa Works on Rail Crossing

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

A sign warning of a pending closure stands on Broad Street at Vine Street in Lansdale on Wednesday, Nov. 1 2023.

Drivers, be warned: you’ll have to detour around one of Lansdale’s busiest intersections soon.

Borough officials announced Wednesday the pending closure of Broad Street by SEPTA for work on a rail crossing next weekend.

"I want to make council aware, and the public aware, of work that will be happening here at the SEPTA rail crossing on South Broad Street,” said borough Manager John Ernst.

"That is beginning on Friday, November 10th at 9 a.m., and continuing through Monday the 13th until 6 p.m. The road will be closed completely,” he said.

Borough officials first announced the closure on social media on Oct. 27, and added details in a subsequent post on Thursday morning, including a detour map showing how Broad would be open to local traffic only from Hancock Street to Vine, closed at the rail crossing north of Vine to Jenkins Avenue, then open to local traffic only between Jenkins and Main Streets.

The detour route would send traffic east-west on Hancock and Main Streets and north-south on Church Road, the manager said, while SEPTA replaces the tracks and concrete thresholds leading up to the tracks. The rail agency has indicated trains will run on a single track only through the crossing during that work.

A map shows a detour route during a closure of Broad Street in Lansdale scheduled for Nov. 10 to 13th, 2023. (Credit: Lansdale Borough)

"If they can open the road earlier on Monday, they will,” he said.

Councilman BJ Breish asked if the borough or SEPTA planned to post signs in the area warning of the closure, and Ernst said they already had. Orange signs reading "This road to be closed for construction 11/10/2023” could be seen at the intersection Wednesday night.

Code director Jason Van Dame added during the code committee meeting that Vine Street will remain open during the construction, so drivers can use the Wood-Vine connector route that was upgraded in 2013-14 as a bypass around the intersection, and that SEPTA will provide bus service between the Pennbrook and Lansdale stations. In a SEPTA service advisory, the rail agency said that buses will be offered for "the entire service day,” and said riders "at Gwynedd Valley, North Wales and Pennbrook (stations) will board and exit from the Inbound Platform during the weekend busing,” and should add 15 to 25 minutes to their expected travel time.

Resident Carole Farrell asked if the closure would conflict with the town’s annual Mardi Gras parade, and Van Dame said it would not, since that event is scheduled for the following weekend.

"The originally wanted to do this project on, I think the first (date) was Bike Night, the next one was the Cruise Night. So they’ve worked with us to get a weekend that did not impact one of the famous borough events. It’s hard to shut down Main Street, and Broad Street, at the same time,” he said.

For more information call SEPTA Customer Service at 215-580-7800, visit www.SEPTA.org, or follow SEPTA on Twitter @SEPTA.

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