PENN TWP — Long-awaited improvements to a dangerous intersection in Penn Township are one step closer to fruition.

Penn Township, along with local engineering consultants Trans Associates, are in the process of overhauling the decades-old traffic signals at the intersection of Route 8 and Airport Road, an intersection which has seen traffic accidents and fatalities over the years.

Earlier this month, preliminary drawings were sent to officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for a third review after addressing “some minor comments.”

Supervisor Chairman Sam Ward estimates that from the moment the township receives final approval from PennDOT, it will take roughly a year to finish the project, with the first two months dedicated to soliciting and sorting through bids.

The overhauled intersection will come with a bevy of safety features. These will include new traffic signals with turn arrows to guide northbound and southbound vehicles from Route 8 onto Airport or East Airport Road.

Also coming to the intersection are three pedestrian crosswalks, complete with crossing signals and push-button activation.

This is a far cry from the signals currently in use at the intersection, which — according to Ward — date back to the mid-1980s.

From left, Penn Township manager Linda Zerfoss, Supervisor Chairman Samuel Ward, and Supervisor Bert Mowry attend a township meeting Monday, May 8. William Pitts/Butler Eagle

For the past month, Trans Associates, power company FirstEnergy, and internet service provider Brightspeed have met at the intersection to discuss how to move the communications lines from the old signal poles to the new ones.

According to Ward, this phase of the work is scheduled to be completed in June.

This revitalization project was made possible after Penn Township received roughly $450,000 from PennDOT’s Automated Red Light Enforcement funding in late 2022. Prior to this, the township had applied for the grant money on four separate occasions since 2017 but did not receive any.

The Airport Road intersection has a history of accidents and incidents, some fatal. In June 2022, well-known Realtor Ed Shields died at the intersection.

Ward has repeatedly stated that addressing the intersection was his “first priority.” He noted that he himself was involved in a crash at the very same intersection more than a decade ago.

Abandoned mobile homes to be demolished

Another change coming to Penn Township will be the demolition of a block of nine abandoned mobile homes, which will be replaced with new ones.

The block of homes is located in the Mandell Trails mobile home community on Bay Street, operated by UMH Properties.

“They have been abandoned for years,” Ward said. “They are an eyesore, unoccupied, dilapidated.

“We view that as a real positive improvement to the development.”

Ward doesn’t have a timetable for when the demolition will be complete. However, he says that work on it has already begun.

“As time permits, they’ll be continuing to remove all nine of them and replace them,” said Ward.