Some Wrightstown residents are keen for improved traffic flow and safety at the bustling “Five Points” intersection, but a quick fix doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
Still, municipal officials are working to advance an effort aimed at bringing about some improvements.
The three-person Board of Supervisors that locally governs Wrightstown took up the topic of the traffic-heavy intersection where Park Avenue, Route 232 and Route 413 converge at a public township meeting on Oct. 23.
They did so after receiving a letter from a Wrightstown resident who asked if a roundabout could be installed and the traffic signals currently in place removed – something the local believed would enhance the movement of traffic and make it safer to drive through the intersection, officials said.
Any project of that scope would have to involve the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), as Route 232 and Route 413 are state roads. As such, Wrightstown Township Manager Stacey Mulholland, with the help of State Sen. Frank Farry’s office, looked into the matter with PennDOT.
The verdict? It doesn’t look like a roundabout is in the offing.
“PennDOT responded that it had previously studied this intersection as part of a countywide project to identify candidates for roundabouts, and Five Points was rated a low priority,” Supervisor Chairman Chester Pogonowski explained.
Pogonowski noted that PennDOT suggested that the township consider applying for a multimodal grant program or work to get the potential roundabout construction added to the regional 2025-2028 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) if it wanted to advance the project.
Still, both of those may be a long shot – at least for speedy completion, officials said.
“Previous examples of township requests through the TIP program included the improvements made at the Route 232 and Swamp Road intersection during the 2021-2023 construction season: This project took in excess of 20 years to get approved, funded and built,” Pogonowski said.
What’s more, the roundabout may just not be feasible given the reality at the intersection.
“A similar discussion 20 years ago to improve regional traffic flow identified a roundabout as a potential improvement to Five Points,” Pogonowski shared. “Due to the size needed to accommodate traffic volume, the roundabout would have significantly imposed on three businesses located at the intersection. Today, additional property would need to be identified to provide detention basins to address current stormwater management regulations due to the increase in impervious surface.”
Nonetheless, supervisors are interested in providing some relief at Five Points, if possible. To that end, they authorized Mulholland to work with Farry’s office to identify potential funding sources to pay the township traffic engineer, Pennoni Engineering, to conduct a review of the intersection with an eye toward identifying possible low-cost improvements.
Pogonowski noted that five years or so ago Pennoni coordinated the application and implementation of a state grant that helped improve traffic-sensing equipment at Five Points to better facilitate vehicle flow.
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