County staff seeks introduction of four signalized-crossing easements for Two Rivers Trail

Brian Cope, the parks and conservation administrator, told the Energy, Environment and Land Use Committee that staff will ask the board to introduce four separate ordinances to secure small signal easements needed to install four PennDOT-approved signalized pedestrian and bicycle crossings as part of the Two Rivers Trail project.

"The signal easements that we need will align all of those areas," Cope said, describing four crossings at Filetown Road, Henry Road and Sullivan Trail and noting the southern segment connects to Plainfield Township trails. He said the county is ready to obtain signatures from four landowners for the easements and that PennDOT has approved the signal plans.

Cope said two grants are in hand to finance the crossings: each grant is $654,000 (one from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and one from TASA funds), which together total $1,308,000. He told the committee the grants must be completed by the end of the year, which is why staff are bringing the easements forward now.

Committee members asked about counting trail users. Cope said permanent trail counters are available but can be costly; he also described commercial "heat-map" software that estimates use from anonymized cell-phone data. "In combination with an actual trail counter, we could probably get a very, very accurate" picture of usage, he said, while noting each approach has limits.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the ordinances at the meeting. Cope said staff would introduce the four ordinances at the next meeting so the committee could consider approval on April 21.

What happens next: Staff will prepare four ordinance introductions for the committee's consideration at a future meeting; no votes were recorded at this session.