The following is an excerpt from an article posted on www.readingeagle.com. It was written by Holly Herman.
The Reading Area Transportation Study group has given preliminary approval to a nearly $212 million four-year transportation budget that includes ongoing improvements to the Route 222 and Route 422 corridors.
Improvements to the county’s two major commuter highways were scaled back as a result of a state proposed $68 million reduction in transportation funding for Berks
County during the next four fiscal years, which begin Oct. 1.
Berks County transportation planner Alan D. Piper notified the RATS group in August that tough decisions were necessary.
Since then, Piper has been working with PennDOT planners on reducing the costs and stretching the time to complete highway upgrades to meet the budget constraints.
The RATS group voted to approve the preliminary plan during a virtual meeting April 16.
The board did not address the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in the shutdown of non-emergency construction projects.
The final four-year and long-term transportation plans are expected to be approved this summer.