Busy Philadelphia intersection to get facelift, safety improvements with new $7.3M project

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- City officials and community leaders announced a multi-million dollar project aimed at making a busy intersection in the Tioga section of Philadelphia safer.

The city plans to invest $7.3 million to improve the Butler Triangle and the intersection at Broad Street, Germantown Avenue, and Erie Street.

"Every neighborhood deserves a beautiful, public space. That will be this," said Anne Nadol, the commerce director for the city.

The Butler Triangle is currently an overgrown plot of land. The first phase of the project will include beautifying it and adding seating.

"It was an eyesore. It was blighted and when you have blight, that's when you have negative things that happen," said Amelia Price, who serves as the coordinator for the Broad, Germantown, and Erie Corridor.

"We're going to have trees, we're going to have string lighting, tables, and chairs for people to eat as well, and dine," said Nathan Grace, the city planner.

It's the first of millions of dollars worth of investments the city is making in the intersection.

The city provided the following list of additional plans for the project:

- Sidewalks with street trees

- Crosswalks with shorter pedestrian crossings

- A median in the middle of Broad Street (Germantown Avenue traffic will still be able to cross)

- A green space at Broad and Butler streets with seating areas, lawns, plants, new lighting, and trees

- A transit plaza at Broad and Erie with an elevator to the Broad Street Line Erie Station (to be constructed by SEPTA)

- Bus shelters

- Bus-only lanes and sidewalk-level bicycle lanes on Erie Avenue

- Sidewalk adjacent bus platforms on Erie Avenue

- Removing the old trolley tracks on Erie Avenue

- Bicycle racks and trash cans

- Gas main replacement on Erie Avenue

- Public art

"This is at the heart of this neighborhood and has such potential and this investment will really, really move this area forward," said Nadol.

It's an area that needs some care. The Action News Data Journalism Team found 95 shootings in a two-block radius of the intersection since 2015, including a shooting in May when a father was with his infant son.

Violence isn't the only safety issue. In the same time period, there were 72 crashes, including four fatal ones within 500 feet of the intersection.

Mayor Jim Kenney said improving the intersection is "an important step of meeting our Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic fatalities in our city."

Neighbors and city leaders agreed that in order to make the area safer, it needs a major investment.

"When you see not just the community, not just the business owners, but also the police coming together, it shows collectively, there's strength in numbers," said Price.

City officials say construction will start the week of July 17. The park is expected to be done by November and the rest of the improvements will take about 18 months.