The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) Rte. 30 Bypass reconstruction project in Chester County, expected to cost $835 million, has moved into its design stage.
The project involves both federal and state funds, and includes widening the section from Reeceville Road to Downingtown to three lanes each direction.
Construction may not begin until 2025, perhaps longer. Within the next two to four years, preliminary engineering environmental evaluation will be completed, and in two to four years after that, the final design.
When the bypass was constructed in the 1960s with reinforced cement concrete, there were 210,000 people living in Chester County. Today, that number has nearly tripled, to more than a half of a million people. That adds up to congestion on many of the major roads, including the Rte. 30 Bypass.
According to a recent PennDOT report, many locations within the Rte. 30 Bypass corridor have accident rates that exceed the statewide average for the same type of highway. And along the length of the Rte. 30 Bypass, there are 18 substandard bridge structures due to insufficient vertical clearance, lateral clearance and curb-to-curb widths.
The corridor reconstruction is broken up into five projects, including improvements to U.S. Rte. 30 and Rte. 10; work on Rte. 82; interchange improvements at Rte. 30 and Airport Road; roadway widening at Eastern Rte. 30 Bypass from two lanes to three 12-ft lanes in each direction; and signage improvements that include Intelligent Transportation System electronic displays and traffic management support.
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Source: Southern Chester County News
