Towamencin Turnpike Slip Ramp to Reopen Saturday

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

Drivers head eastbound on Sumneytown Pike and onto a slip ramp heading to the southbound Northeast Extension before the slip ramp was closed in July 2

Township and PennDOT officials will get a rare chance to see traffic flow both before and after a major road project wraps up soon.

And what they see could impact whether any future work is needed at a slip ramp from Sumneytown Pike to the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, after a lane widening project ends this weekend.

“We actually have an opportunity to capture what the traffic looked like before the slip ramp was installed. I think a lot of us agree that the slip ramp has not done its job, and has only created more of a problem,” said supervisor Rich Marino.

Starting July 31, PennDOT closed the slip ramp leading from eastbound Sumneytown to the southbound turnpike, after lengthy talks on heavy traffic stacking seen in that area, and ways the township and state could change the intersection to alleviate it. The slip ramp was installed as part of the roughly $200 million widening of the Northeast Extension, including new direct-access EZ-pass lanes between the turnpike itself and Sumneytown Pike and Towamencin Avenue, and the ramp and two others on opposite sides of the interchange opened as the project neared its conclusion in 2017.

Since then, township officials and residents have seen heavy traffic backups on Sumneytown at Old Forty Foot Road, where the slip ramp channels traffic directly to the turnpike via one left turn lane, which causes traffic backups during rush hours, and in 2018-19 the township and its traffic engineer secured modifications to the traffic signal at Sumneytown and the interchange itself, meant to let drivers bypass the slip ramp and access the interchange at the original toll plaza.

Since those fixes in 2019, the township’s traffic engineer has continued to press PennDOT for further changes, and in January the engineer reported that PennDOT had identified plans to change the slipramp entry from one left-turn lane to two left-turn lanes, with that work starting in early August once the ramp was closed.

During the township supervisors meeting on Sept. 27, Marino gave an update: with the lane restriping now nearly complete, PennDOT has not yet started an updated analysis of the intersection, but could gather traffic data needed to do so, both while the slip ramp is closed and after it reopens.

“What I’ve asked our traffic engineer is, to assist us with our argument with PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission, to do a drone overflight of that area, now – at the morning rush, early afternoon and evening rush hours, to document the way traffic is flowing. Which, if you’ve gone through there, it’s flowing pretty well there at the moment” with the slip ramp still closed, Marino said.

“Once the ramp is open again, I don’t have a lot of confidence that the improvements that they’ve done are going to work, or make a big difference, so we intend to do a second drone shot: again, morning, afternoon, and evening rush, after the slip ramp is reopened. So basically we’ll have before and after,” he said.

PennDOT has announced that the slip ramp is scheduled to reopen on Saturday, Oct. 7, and on Friday from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday Sumneytown will be reduced to a single lane in each direction for final line striping ahead of reopening the slip ramp. Drivers are advised to allow for extra time when heading through that area, and all activities are weather-dependent and subject to change, PennDOT said in an announcement Wednesday."

During the supervisors meeting, township Manager David Kraynik said the cost for the two drone flights would be covered from the township’s general engineering services fund which is under budget for 2023, and board Chairman Chuck Wilson said no formal approval would be needed to authorize the expense.

According to PennDOT, the work is being done as part of ongoing construction on the agency’s Route 309 Connector project, meant to build a new roadway connecting the Northeast Extension with Route 309 in adjacent Hatfield Township. The second phase will construct new roadway between Allentown Road and Hatfield-Souderton Pike, and the third phase would continue that roadway north to 309, and is currently in design, according to the agency.

Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on Oct. 11 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

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