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THE COUNTY’S INFRASTRUCTURE BACKBONE
PLANNING ISSUE
Investment in some buildings,
particularly county-owned
facilities, has been limited over
the years as budgets have
tightened and costs have been
reigned in.
Sewage Facilities
Water Facilities
Solid Waste
Stormwater Management
Energy
Communications
Emergency Services
Other Governmental
Facilities
Other Governmental Facilities
The county is home to a variety of government facilities,
including buildings associated with federal, state, county,
and municipal governments.
Federal Facilities
The 80 or so post offices in the county are our most common
federal government facility. Post offices can be divided into
two categories: delivery and nondelivery (which provide
post office boxes only and do not deliver mail to residences
and businesses). Some smaller nondelivery post offices are
privately owned; most larger delivery post offices are owned
and operated by the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Although the general trend has been for the USPS to close
smaller post offices and consolidate services, no post offices
in Montgomery County have closed in recent years.
Other federal offices include the United States Department
of Agriculture Eastern Regional Research Center in
Springfield Township and sites owned or operated by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Internal Revenue Services,
National Park Services and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. The Willow Grove Air National Guard Base,
as it is now called, closed in September 2011 but the Air
Force will retain administrative offices on the property.
State Facilities
One major state facility is the State Correctional Institution
at Graterford in Skippack Township. Built in 1929, it now
detains approximately 3,000 inmates, about 8% of the state’s
total prison population and the largest population of all
prisons operated by the Pennsylvania Department of
Corrections. The official capacity of the facility is about
2,550 inmates.
A recent addition to the county’s state facilities is the
Department of Environmental Protection’s offices in
Norristown, which was constructed on a brownfield site and
opened its doors in 2004. And besides the PennDOT
District 6-0 headquarters in Upper Merion, there is the
District 6-1 maintenance office and a driver testing facility
in East Norriton Township.
What’s New
•
An expansion at the State Correctional Institution at
Graterford is currently underway. This project, which
has a total allocation of $400 million, entails the
construction of a new prison facility which will replace
the existing Graterford facility. There will be 4,100
beds—a big increase—as well as administrative and
support buildings, all located in the immediate vicinity
of the existing facility.
•
A recent expansion at the county’s correctional facility
created space for more than five hundred prisoners on
work-release or serving sentences for DUI and other
nonviolent crimes. This construction, which took place
from 2010 to 2011, has helped prevent overcrowding.
Originally built to house 1,240 inmates and later
expanded to accommodate 1,500 inmates, the
population has exceeded 1,700 prisoners in recent years.
•
Municipalities looking to the future have built new
municipal buildings and other facilities over the last ten
years, including Red Hill Borough and Lower Salford
Township. Hatfield Township replaced its municipal
pool facility with a new complex in 2007 that includes
two pools and a bathhouse. Horsham Township built a
new library in 2004, close to the township building as
well as several local schools.
Hatfield’s new pool is a big draw for local residents.
