LOWER MERION — Lower Merion could soon get some new sidewalks.

At its recent meeting, the Lower Merion Building and Planning Committee recommended that the board of commissioners adopt a resolution supporting township staff applying for a $3 million grant to the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development for sidewalks, crosswalks, intersection upgrades, and other multi-modal transportation improvements at numerous places throughout the township.

Jesse Hunting, township assistant director of Public Works, said the grants provide up to $3 million to encourage “safe and reliable transportation infrastructure.”

The funds can be spent for intersection upgrades, traffic signal modernization, new sidewalks and crosswalks.

“We are planning to request the full $3 million to support three projects, including two projects that are part of the township-wide priority sidewalk initiative,” Hunting said. “These projects were selected primarily because of their high priority but also because they can each be classified as multi-modal.”

The first of the three projects includes a sidewalk along Hagys Ford Road to connect Penn Valley Elementary School and Welsh Valley Middle School.

The estimated cost of the $1.8 million project would include installing a sidewalk on the west side of Hagys Ford Road between Moreno and Old Gulph roads. It also includes improvements to the Y-intersection where Old Gulph and Hagys Ford roads meet.

“The sidewalk and intersection upgrades coincide with upcoming Lower Merion Township and PennDOT capital improvements planned for Hagys Ford Road between Righters Mill Road and Tower Lane to improve mobility in a corridor connecting residents and students with Penn Valley Elementary School and Welsh Valley Middle School,” according to the township staff’s issue briefing to the commissioners.

Commissioner Dan Bernheim said the Hagys Ford Road project had been under discussion for many years.

“I am ecstatic to see Hagys Ford Road here going from Penn Valley Elementary to Welsh Valley,” Bernheim said. “It’s been decades that that’s been under discussion with many different focus groups, but one of the issues always was the difficulty of the topography.”

At an estimated cost of $3.2 million, the second project includes sidewalks along Morris Road from Cloverhill to Haverford Avenue and from Morris Road to Lancaster Avenue.

“These upgrades in Wynnewood and Penn Wynne will provide residents walkable connections to nearby parks, schools, places of worship, shopping centers, and mass transit services. Modernization of the signalized intersection at Cloverhill Road and Lancaster Avenue to accommodate pedestrians provide a safety improvements for multi-modal access to the Wynnewood Shopping Center,” according to the staff memo.

Project No. 3 is a $799,000 job being done “cooperatively with Villanova University and Radnor Township to install crosswalk and sidewalk improvements along County Line Road between Clairemont and Spring Mill Roads.”

Commissioner Andy Gavrin said Radnor has already applied for and received a grant for the portion of the County Line Road project in its jurisdiction.

“So they are moving forward with one-half of the sidewalk, and this would complete that, so it would be very nice to have a full sidewalk, not just half of it that stops in the middle of the block,” Gavrin said.

Hunting said the grant does not require any matching funds from the township, and any money the township receives from the grant would mean it would be spending less from its Capital Improvement Program funds.

Township officials say they expect to hear back about the grants in the fall or early next spring.