A car turns from Bridle Path Drive onto Sumneytown Pike, at an intersection where a new driveway entrance to North Penn High School could be added as part of a major school renovation project, on Tuesday Nov. 28 2023. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
New driveway was part of earlier plans prior to referendum
As part of the planned renovations to North Penn High School, the school board has voted ahead a study looking at a potential pedestrian crosswalk on Sumneytown Pike.
Towamencin Township has requested the school district consider adding a pedestrian crossing at Sumneytown Pike and Bridle Path Drive as part of the renovation project, Director of Facilities and Operations Bill Slawter reported to the board.
Planned renovations to the high school, and have split into two phases, the first of which could start as soon as this summer and the second that could start in 2026 and run into the 2030s.
In 2023 when an earlier version of the renovations was up for discussion, those early plans called for a new addition to the school meant to house ninth grade students, and a new driveway, proposed to run north-south through the campus, parallel with Valley Forge Road and the adjacent North Montco Technical Career Center driveway. That new driveway access would have connected the current driveway entrance off of Snyder Road with new parking lots, to be added at the rear of the school where the district’s transportation center and bus garage are located now, then running between the current school’s athletic fields and the recently renovated Crawford Stadium to a new entry and exit on Sumneytown across from Bridle Path Drive.
While that first version of plans was erased from the drawing board after the voter referendum in early 2024, recent talks with Towamencin officials have revived discussion around that intersection, Slawter told the school board’s facilities and operations committee on Jan. 28.
“The original conversations with the township were around a traffic study. This is in addition to the traffic study,” he said.
In 2023 Towamencin officials saw a detailed sidewalk study throughout that township which studied and detailed routes for up to $7 million in new projects across that township, including new connections to and through the high school campus.
“They’re not requiring a traffic study, but now they’re asking that we provide this pedestrian study across Sumneytown Pike as part of their larger plan,” Slawter said.
A truck turns from Sumneytown Pike onto Bridle Path Drive, at an intersection where a new driveway entrance or crosswalk to North Penn High School could be added as part of a major school renovation project, on Tuesday Nov. 28 2023.Board president Cathy McMurtrie asked what the potential cost impact could be to the district; Slawter answered that the cost of the study itself has been quoted at $4,500, with the same traffic engineer that performed a 2022 traffic study, and the costs of what the study will recommend are unknown.
“Once the study is complete, we would know the scope of work, and we would be able to price that,” he said.
“Right now, we have no idea if it’s just a crosswalk, is it a crosswalk with flashing pedestrian signs, is it a metered signal crosswalk? Until the study’s done, we don’t know the actual impact,” Slawter said.
Board member Juliane Ramic asked if the study was requested because students live in the development located along Bridle Path, and Slawter said it was.
“This is part of the township’s long-range plan for pathways and walkways throughout the township,” he said.
Ramic replied that she often sees students walk farther down Sumneytown to the intersection with Valley Forge Road where four-way signals and sidewalks make for an easier crossing. Superintendent Todd Bauer said those students were one of, but not the only, consideration the township had in mind.
“I don’t think the motivation is for students to walk. I think it’s to make the township more walkable. I can’t see a scenario where our students would be walkers across Sumneytown Pike or Valley Forge Road: I just don’t think that’s a good situation, in the morning, at arrival time,” Bauer said.
The committee then voted ahead the crosswalk study for full board approval when that group next meets on Feb. 11. At that meeting, the district plans to have a new QR code available for members of the public to scan to provide input on the latest high school plans, in addition to similar codes that will be on display for students and staff to scan within the school itself.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 11 and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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