Penn Township awards contract for traffic signal upgrade
PENN TWP — After months of back and forth with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Penn Township is finally ready to move forward with plans for safety upgrades at an intersection which has been notorious for vehicle collisions.
At their monthly meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 9, supervisors awarded the contract for upgrading the traffic signal at the intersection of Airport Road and Route 8 to M&B Services, a general construction company based in Clarion.
M&B’s bid won out over three other bids, all of which were described as “very competitive” by Samuel Ward, the chairman of the board of supervisors. The winning bid came in just shy of $500,000.
“They will replace the traffic light,” said Ward. “Once the new equipment is here, they'll remove the old equipment.”
This marks another milestone for the Route 8/Airport Road improvement project. The township received the green light to put the project out to bid in October, after months of sending preliminary drawings to PennDOT for approval. Bids for the project came in on Dec. 19.
The project was made possible thanks to a $450,000 grant the township received in 2022 from PennDOT’s Automated Red Light Enforcement program. The township previously applied for grant money for this endeavor multiple times without success.
The intersection of Route 8 and Airport Road has been a matter of public concern for years, as it was a hot spot for traffic collisions — some fatal. One of the fatalities was well-known local Realtor Ed Shields, who died in a two-car crash at the intersection in June 2022.
Ward himself was involved in a motor accident there more than a decade ago.
According to Ward, the revamped traffic signal will resemble what motorists in Middlesex Township are already familiar with.
“It will be very similar to the poles that you see in Middlesex Township, south of the intersection of Route 8 and 228,” Ward said. “It'll be metal poles with stanchion arms that reach out to support the lights. It will also include night lighting on the poles, and a pedestrian crossing on three of the four roads.”
Now that a contractor has been selected, the township estimates the project will be completed in 10 months, if all goes according to plan.
“That allows us a month to get the contract signed, and meet with the contractor and PennDOT and our engineer to finalize the location of the poles,” Ward said.
