The Ridge Pike Improvement Project, Section C from Butler Pike

to Crescent Avenue, has begun. Municipal elected officials,

planning commission members, and staff were provided an

opportunity to meet the engineers, hear about how the

project’s design will progress, and offer insights to issues

associated with this section of Ridge Pike.

Ridge Pike is a County-owned roadway. The County Roads and Bridges

Department and the County Planning Commission are partnering to

manage all sections of the Ridge Pike project.

Rummel, Klepper, and Kahl ,LLP (RKK) was chosen for a competitive

process for the preliminary design.

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RKK will be working with several sub-consultants to complete the

preliminary design.

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The Butler Pike to Crescent Avenue section is known as Section C of the comprehensive

Ridge Pike Improvement Project.

Section A realigned the Conshohocken Road intersection with Ridge Pike and reconstructed

the section of Ridge Pike between Lucetta Street and School Lane. This section is complete.

Section B extends from Belvoir Avenue to Chemical Road. This section is in Final Design and

includes reconstruction of Ridge Pike to include a center left turn lane as well as

replacement of two bridges over the Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Section C will include reconstruction of Ridge Pike between Butler Pike and Crescent

Avenue and bottleneck improvements. Preliminary design has just begun.

Section D includes reconstruction between Crescent Avenue and Northwestern Avenue at

the Philadelphia city line. This section is in Final Design. Section D will add an eastbound

through lane to create two travel lanes in each direction.

Sidewalks and upgraded stormwater management facilities will be added in all sections of

the reconstruction project.

In addition, the Pennsylvania Turnpike is designing a new Lafayette Street Interchange.

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Section C includes residential neighborhoods as well as commercial and

open space land uses along the corridor.

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Section C is 1.9 miles long and will include full depth reconstruction of

Ridge Pike. This level of maintenance has not been completed for Ridge

Pike since it was originally constructed. Sidewalks will be added and

upgraded along the south side of the roadway and stormwater

management facilities will be improved.

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Preliminary design is underway with data collection, aerial photography

of the corridor, survey to confirm details on the ground, and

environmental review and analysis.

Preliminary design will continue through 2018 and 2019. A second

engineering contract will then be established to complete the Final

Design of the project.

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Photogrammetric mapping begins with accurate aerial photography and

the is “ground-truthed” with survey to provide the baseline data upon

which the reconstruction plans will be created.

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Federal and state environmental cultural resources will be met and

alternatives that reduce impacts will be evaluated.

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A public open house is anticipated late in 2018 to share the preliminary

findings with the community. Until then, regular updates will be held

with municipal stakeholders as well as some individual property owners,

as needed.

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Traffic counts were conducted in the fall of 2017 and indicated that this

section of Ridge Pike also carries more than 30,000 vehicles per day.

These counts are total of both eastbound and westbound traffic

volumes.

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Traffic volume peaks are generally consistent with other roadways in the

region with weekday morning and afternoon peaks, consistent volume

through most of Saturday and a narrower peak Sunday around noon.

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Preliminary design will continue through 2018 and 2019. Preliminary

design identifies the issues that must be addressed with the construction

project and evaluates reasonable alternatives where conflicts exist. Final

design will complete the details of the reconstruction and prepare the

construction plans. Construction is anticipated in the early 2020’s.

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