The Old York Susquehanna Project in Abington is finally seeing forward progress, and not a moment too soon.

“We’re up against the last deadline,” commissioner John Spiegelman said.

The Township’s idea has been to improve a central intersection by acquiring state grant money to purchase four corner properties on Old York Road (1100, 1102, 1104, 1106) and subsequently demolish them.

According to commissioner Spiegelman, the residents of the apartments are long gone, and the windows of two of the buildings have been boarded up and vacant for years. There was only one mobile business when the Township’s purchase took place.

Plans to begin demolishing the four properties are scheduled to take place within the next two weeks.

“It’s one of the worst intersections, and it’s been crooked since William Penn laid it out,” commissioner Spiegelman said. “The sidewalks are terrible, the left turns are ridiculous, it’s unfriendly on all fronts. We want to reconfigure and realign the intersection into something that actually functions.”

The Township received the necessary grants years ago, and various delays have pushed the plan into 2023.

“We were given extension after extension, but the Board didn’t want to condemn the martial arts building 1907 Old York Road,” commissioner Spiegelman said. “The fear was that we’d have to send that grant money back, which means we’d never get it again. The original plans called for the purchasing of 1907 Old York Road as well. Fortunately, our people from the engineering and public works departments came up with an alternate plan to do the project with only acquiring the four corner properties.”

The Township held a neighborhood Zoom call on Wednesday evening to let residents know that demolition will begin soon. A follow-up neighbor Zoom call will discuss the improvements to the intersections, expected lane closures and detours.

“Rumors have been circulating that the area will become a bus depot, which is untrue,” commissioner Spiegelman said. “At some point there will be a development phase, though there’s no telling when that will happen.”

The project has brought forth its share of concerns from area residents. To read through some of those concerns, you can click here.