Towamencin board hears update on North Penn HS crosswalk

 As work continues on the first phase of renovations to North Penn High School, township officials heard an update on the second phase.

District officials gave an update on those plans last Wednesday night, including decisions on a planned crosswalk that’s still waiting for several parties to have their say.

“The preliminary plan was before you some months ago, which the board did grant approval for, and a number of waivers. This is the final step in the process,” said attorney Greg Heleniak on behalf of the school district.

“I’m happy to say, in a good way, that not much has changed. There have been some tweaks to the arrangement of the building additions on the site, but everything has been reviewed by your township engineer, and your traffic engineer,” he said.

Work started in May on renovations to the high school, with work ongoing this summer on the school’s natatorium, K-pod, and several improvements to the surrounding campus, the first in what’s anticipated to be a multi-year, $260 million renovation project running into the 2030s, including a new addition, expanded parking, and a new transportation building.

During the Towamencin supervisors meeting on Wednesday night, Heleniak and land planner Barry Stingel brought the board up to speed, saying the district has addressed or will comply with all of the comments raised by the township and its consultants while vetting the plans.

“We are adding one additional waiver request at this final plan approval,” Heleniak said.

That waiver request relates to existing conditions on the site, where stormwater lines connect to a culvert below Sumneytown Pike.

“We’re actually reducing flow, and improving the condition there, but because we’re not up to the standards of the ordinance, we’re still requesting a waiver for that particular provision,” he said.

The other request for the board to consider in October drew more discussion: where to locate a potential crosswalk across Sumneytown PIke. In February the district authorized study of a possible crosswalk on Sumneytown at Bridle Path Drive for kids walking to the school from that neighborhood, and Heleniak said talks with staff have centered on whether that’s the best location, or if it should be located farther west near the driveway to the North Montco Technical Career Center. Due to the site topography, Heleniak told the board, the district design team originally proposed locating the crosswalk at Bridle Path, but have started talks with the tech center on whether to locate it there instead.

“We did have some preliminary discussions of moving that crosswalk to the top of the hill, more or less, on Sumneytown Pike. Our philosophy is, there needs to be a safe crossing, it’s just a question of where it is,” he said.

Supervisor Chuck Wilson asked if township engineer Mary Stover had reviewed and approved the waivers, and Stover said she had. Township Manager David Kraynik added that “staff’s position is that we are more comfortable with the crosswalk at Bridle Path,” and asked who would make the final decision. Heleniak said the district’s request was to include language in the approval resolution that the district would defer to the township’s direction, and township traffic engineer Chad Dixson said he had also taken a preliminary look at the area.

“We did do some follow-up evaluation: not a full, detailed evaluation like we did for the Bridle Path crossing, but we did some more field work, we reviewed some more data. At this point in time, our recommendation is to continue moving forward with the Bridle Path location, for further consideration by the county and PennDOT if the township would like to move forward,” he said.

“We found that there’s actually better sight distances at the Bridle Path location, for the crossing, compared to the tech school driveway or a midpoint in between. And that’s primarily driven by a vertical curve in Sumneytown Pike, to the west” of the tech center, Dixson said.

Sight distance there could be improved further by removing vegetation in the area, the engineer added, and board Chairwoman Joyce Snyder described what it will look like.

“To be clear, we are talking about a flashing, yellow light signal, kind of crosswalk? Not just painted?” Snyder said, and the engineer agreed.

Based on traffic volume and speeds seen there, Dixson added, his firm believes the county and PennDOT would require flashing warning lights at the crossing, and Heleniak said the district is still waiting for that feedback.

“The county has still not weighed in on where they believe this crossing would be located. So we wanted to build in that flexibility” in the approval resolution “if the county had a different analysis.”

“We’ll have to comply with whatever the county dictates, and whatever PennDOT hands down, but it might shift,” Heleniak said, and Dixson concurred.

Resident Bruce Bailey offered one more suggestion, based on how he has heard college campuses plan their sidewalks and layouts.

“Let the students tell you where they want to walk, and that makes a good college campus, or office campus. If you preplan and put down a bunch of sidewalks, half of it won’t be used, half of it will be cut across. Put a couple of drones up in the morning and the afternoon, watch where the students are going, and map it out,” he said.

The supervisors then voted unanimously to authorize staff to prepare the final resolution for approval in October, with the language allowing flexibility for the crosswalk location. Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the township administration building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com