It was pretty smooth sailing at last night’s Public Safety/Public Works committee meeting in Jenkintown, but a few things of note emerged.

PennDOT Noble Bridge Project:

The much anticipated/feared Noble/York Road bridge project will not start until the summer of 2020 at the earliest. Borough Manager George Locke reported that PennDOT has yet to put the job out to bid and isn’t expected to until January, 2020. Typically, he reported, construction starts six months after PennDOT awards the contract.

When the project does commence, look for PennDOT to pinch the traffic flow down to a single lane in either direction.

Speed Hump for Leedom Street

Requests from the residents of Leedom Street for slower traffic prompted the borough to conduct a traffic study to see if a speed hump might be warranted. The Borough’s consulting engineer Khaled Hassan assured the traffic numbers did justify a hump. Police chief Albert DiValentino cited his department’s own study showing an average speed of only 30 MPH, which might mean a hump is “not warranted.” The chief also raised his concern about the impact to emergency vehicle response times.

With regards to the humps already installed on Runnymede Avenue, Mayor Allyson Dobbs cited past efforts to go “door-to-door” asking those residents what they thought of the idea. This Runnymede resident was never queried.

The cost of speed humps can range from $1,000 to $6,900, and the average is approximately $2,500 according to this source.

Train Station Concerns

The committee again expressed concerns about SEPTA’s plans for the Jenkintown/Wyncote train station. Designed by Horace Trumbauer and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building has served the community for 87 years and continues to be the busiest station on the system outside of Center City.

With SEPTA’s plans to build accessible platforms on the other side of the Curry Bridge, it will leave the building without a tenant.