As part of the Broad, Germantown, and Erie Project, the City has made improvements to the triangle at Broad, Butler, and Germantown, commonly known as Fish Park and Butler Triangle based on previous phases of community input conducted in 2020. The City also plans to make the intersection safer, create jobs and support businesses, and honor local history. 

Recent community feedback and engagement has pivoted the City’s approach into a phased one. Learn more about what this means for BGE.

Phasing the project

The previously proposed pedestrian median island along Broad Street, Butler Street and Erie Avenue would have meant significant changes in traffic patterns on Germantown Avenue. Both community members and some business owners on the Germantown Avenue corridor were hesitant about traffic changes, especially restricting northbound Germantown Avenue traffic to turn right at Broad Street, rather than flowing across Broad Street.

The phased approach is more incremental and allows the additional maintenance to scale over time. 

What is changing

  • Phase one will not include significant traffic changes to Germantown Avenue at Broad Street. Cars and buses will continue to move along Germantown Avenue like they do today. 
  • Phase one will no longer include a full pedestrian median island on North Broad Street between Butler Street to Erie Avenue. 
  • Butler Triangle and Erie Triangle will both have improvements in phase one – but the triangles will not expand in size, instead they will remain approximately the same size as today. 

What is new

A new SEPTA elevator is now included in phase one, which will provide full ADA accessibility to Erie Station.  

What is remaining the same

  • During phase one:
    • Erie Avenue will have track removal.
    • Erie Avenue will have bus lanes, improved bus stops, and protected bike lanes.
    • Pedestrian safety improvements including shorter and safer crosswalks, new paint, and new pavement (median tips protecting crosswalks). 
  • The vision developed over several rounds of community input will remain. Phase one will use the same guiding principles from the community for the design of public spaces at Butler Triangle and Erie Triangle. Although both triangles will not be expanded as previously proposed, investments at both triangles will implement designs from the community process.

Next steps

  • Phase 2 will be developed in partnership with Pennsylvania State Senator Sharif Street, PennDOT, and other project partners and will feature heavy emphasis on community engagement and collaboration.
  • Construction for phase one is anticipated to begin in 2022 and will be completed in 2023
  • Implement community members’ ideas for improvements and strengthen the long-term working relationships between the City, the community, businesses, and other agencies  

a slide from the BGE presentation showing the plans for Phase 1

a slide from the presentation showing plans for phase 2

Since 2017, the BGE Task Force has existed as a joint effort between different City departments and neighborhood organizations. The task force goal is to bring restoration, beautification, traffic safety, and investment to the intersection of BGE in North Philadelphia. 

Stay in touch and up to date on the project at phila.gov/bge and sign-up for email updates. 

If you’d like a City staff person to come and speak to your group about this project and hear your input, please get in touch at bge@phila.gov or call (215) 436-9886.   

View this presentation to learn more about the phased approach in more detail