Lansdale & Hatfield Are Receiving $1.88 Million For Liberty Bell Trail Improvements

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Two local communities have received funding from a federal grant program to help with improvements along a growing recreational corridor.

Lansdale Borough and Hatfield Township are receiving a combined total of $1.88 million to go toward improvements along the Liberty Bell Trail, an artery of trailway that is planned to link up with a growing network of recreational paths in the region.

The federal funding was announced by the office of State Rep. Steve Malagari, a Montgomery County Democrat.

"Our community has the potential to develop one of the most-used and significant multi-use trails in the region, with the ultimate goal of connecting the Liberty Bell Trail to miles of other trails, including the Schuylkill River Trail in Norristown," Malagari said in a statement. "The potential for connecting communities and providing walkers, runners and cyclists with the opportunity to add a recreational option in our backyard is the reason I have worked for about two years with local stakeholders on this valuable project."

Lansdale Borough has been approved for $973,000 for trail improvements, including a 10-foot wide shared-use trail and stream crossing, with the trail portion in the borough linking Lansdale's northern residential neighborhoods with Wedgewood Park and Moyers Road Fields, according to Malagari's office.

Hatfield Township, meanwhile, will be seeing $910,000 in funding, which will be used for a 1,500-foot long, 10-foot wide shared-use path along the PPL right-of-way extending from Orvilla Road. A sidewalk will also be added as part of this phase of improvements.

Malagari's office said that the funding came out of a total of $54.1 million given to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation through the federal Surface Transportation Block Grant program.

The lawmaker said that before the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law, only $18 million in funding would have been available to Pennsylvania.