New I-76 Speed Limit Technology Activated

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — The new speed limit shift technology on the Schuylkill Expressway in Montgomery County, which had been in a testing phase, is now fully active, officials announced Tuesday.

Speed limits will now shift between 35 and 55 miles per hour depending on traffic, weather, and other hazardous conditions. The signs have been up since April 8 to allow motorists time to adjust to them, while the existing static signs have been taken down.

One of the region's most notorious traffic traps, PennDOT officials have been looking for ways to better handle congestion. This stretch of the Schuylkill Expressway serves roughly 130,000 vehicles per day, and it had 2,580 crashes between 2015 and 2019.

"This is one of the ways we are using operational strategies and technologies to actively manage travel and traffic flow along this critical corridor," PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian said in a statement last month.

Of those 2,580 crashes, 1,741 of them were rear-end crashes, PennDOT said. By warning motorists ahead of time of backups or slowdowns around a bend, authorities hope the new system cuts that number down.

In addition to the speed limit, the signs will also feature real-time warnings about lane closures, accidents, slowdowns, weather incidents, or any other conditions impacting traffic flow.

Into the future, authorities are working on other technological changes for this increasingly busy stretch of roadway. That includes modernizing traffic signals on other roads which feed onto the expressway, as well as turning the existing shoulders on portions of I-76 into third lanes during peak travel times.

The 35 to 55 range could be altered based on the performance of the system and feedback from officials.