Montgomery County, PA

 

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN — The Montgomery County Commissioners presented West Conshohocken Borough Council with a check for $700,000 Tuesday to widen Matsonford Road.

 

The widening will allow for a left-turn lane to the Schuylkill Expressway on-ramp for traffic coming off the Fayette Street Bridge and alleviate heavy traffic congestion that regularly occurs there.

 

The borough is matching the County’s grant with $100,000 for the project, which is already out to bid.

 

This is one of four Jump Start projects the County Commissioners will undertake this year. The purpose is to demonstrate traffic improvements projects that would be included in a new $150 million program that will be brought to voters in a referendum in November.
 
After the much-publicized collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis two years ago, the state and federal governments have clearly indicated that all of their transportation dollars for the foreseeable future will be used to fix existing roads and bridges that are wearing out.

 

That has left municipalities who have already laid out the initial money for projects to improve traffic flow in their communities high and dry, Commissioners Chairman James R. Matthews said.

 

“People sitting stuck in traffic because there’s no turn-lane up ahead often wonder ‘when are they going to do something about this,’” Matthews said. “We are ‘they’ right now.”

 

left to right: West Conshohocken Borough Council President Marcy Rogovin, Borough Manager Caren Andrews, West Conshohocken Councilman Bernie Couris, Montgomery County Commissioners Chairman James R. Matthews, West Conshohocken Mayor Donna Frankenfield and  Montgomery County Commissioners Vice Chairman Joseph M. Hoeffel.