Route 1001 Ship and Swedesford Roads
Intersection Alignment

West Whiteland Township, Chester County, PA

Swedesford Road is a primary arterial (running parallel to much of Route 30 and Route 202) connecting Route 100 to the west with King of Prussia to the east. Ship Road is a primary arterial connecting Boot Road to the south with Route 100 to the north. The intersection of Ship Road and Swedesford Road is a key junction point located approximately 1/2 mile east of the 1,500,000 square foot Exton Square Mall consisting of two "T" intersections, offset by approximately 275 feet. The offset T-intersections without separate left turn lanes resulted in excessive vehicle delays and led to low levels of services and safety problems.

Due to these problems, West Whiteland Township required a redesign of the intersection as part of their sub-division approval for the Swedesford Chase residential development located on the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection. The focus of the road improvement project was to increase mobility and improve safety by signalizing and realigning the intersection as a skewed four?way intersection. TPD, as the Township Traffic Engineer, was asked to develop the design and submit plans to PennDOT, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corp of Engineers and the Chester County Conservation District. TPD's plans were approved and West Whiteland Township received the appropriate permits to move ahead with the project. Left turn lanes were designed on all four approaches and the two existing culverts were replaced with a box culvert designed by TPD. TPD's environmental unit identified wetlands and other environmental issues and the impacts were minimized as part of the design.

As part of other projects in the Township, Route 100 (located approximately 1/2 mile west of the intersection) was scheduled to be reduced by one lane in each direction for bridge widening in October and November of 2000. The design schedule for the Ship and Swedsford project was accelerated in order for this project to be completed first, prior to the commencement of lane reductions on parallel segments of Route 100. In this fashion, Ship Road could then better handle some of the traffic diverting form Route 100 during construction. Therefore, it was critical to both PennDOT and the Township that construction of the intersection be completed prior to the lane reduction on Route 100. TPD coordinated with several utility companies and the culvert manufacturer, in an effort to maintain this schedule.