Montgomery County Roads and Bridges announced today that a detour will begin on Tuesday, July 5, 2022 on Swamp Pike between New Hanover Square Road and Ridge Pike. The detour is necessary to reconstruct the Swamp Pike Bridge (Bridge 166) to ensure it is structurally sound and safe for motorists.

            Work includes demolishing and re-constructing bridge 166 located at the New Hanover Square Road end of Swamp Pike. The County is working in association with the utility owners to also upgrade the underground water and gas utilities as part of this project. The project's estimated completion date is late November 2022. The local detour for Bridge 166 is presented in the graphic below.

            The above detour is for motor vehicles only, not trucks. A separate truck detour is being coordinated with PennDOT for Bridge 166

            Motorists should exercise caution in all construction zones and reduce their speeds while the road is under construction.

            Other area projects include paving the remaining section of Swamp Pike that is scheduled to be complete by spring 2023 as part of the County's 2022 and 2023 road paving program. Both the new bridge and new underground utilities need to be completed prior to final paving operations. Aqua is responsible for the water line and associated paving restoration along Swamp Pike. These improvements are funded by Montgomery County Motor Vehicle Fund.

            The Swamp Pike Bridge is located in New Hanover Township. This bridge was built in 1827 and includes two spans, 33 feet long with 1,155 square feet of deck area above the Swamp Creek.

            Upper Perkiomen School Board continued to set aside money for the eventual replacement of its athletic turf fields at the high school during its final meeting of the 2021-22 school year. Earlier this month, the members approved an action item granting Business Administrator Dan Direso authority to transfer a portion of the district's fund balance to the capital reserve account for that purpose.

            The amount of the transfer will be dictated by signage rental fees and any remaining surplus in the athletic budget, according to Direso. He said a motion with the total will likely be considered by the board in August or September.

            Approximately $740,000 in the capital reserve account has been allocated for the project, according to the business administrator. He said Wednesday that the timeline to replace the fields is undetermined.

            "The turf fields are in pretty great condition considering they are just about at the end of what their life should be," Member Melanie Cunningham, who chairs both the district's Facilities and Finance committee, wrote in an email received Wednesday morning.

            In November of 2009, the school board voted to ...