Montgomery County, PA

 

WEST CONSHOHOCKEN — The Montgomery County Commissioners and elected officials from West Conshohocken officially broke ground this week on a project 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.

 

Construction will begin immediately and be complete in the fall.

 

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 the future.
 
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): Vince Totaro, former president of Conshohocken Borough Council, Montgomery County Commissioners Chairman Jim Matthews, Khaled Hassan, Pennoni Associates, West Conshohocken Borough Council President Marcy Rogovin, Montgomery County Commissioners Joseph M. Hoeffel and Bruce L. Castor Jr., V. Scott Zelov, Montogmery County Planning Commission, West Conshohocken Borough Councilman Bernie Couris.