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Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission representatives met with state legislators and township officials Thursday (Oct. 4) to review an alternative engineering design that significantly reduces residential property takes required to construct planned improvements to a 10.5 mile section of I-476, the Northeastern Extension, between the Mid-County and Lansdale Interchanges in Montgomery County.
The preliminary engineering design plans viewed by the public this past spring revealed impacts affecting well over 200 individual properties in Plymouth, Whitpain, Worcester, Upper Gwynedd and Towamencin Townships – approximately 80 percent of which were residential properties. The Turnpike’s alternative engineering design could ultimately reduce the overall number of properties impacted by an estimated 75 percent or more.
“We are evaluating the use of retaining walls, new locations for stormwater basins, and other design features that enable us to achieve necessary facility improvements while greatly reducing impacts to residential properties,” noted Gerald H. Rollman, Project Manager for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. “The plans for the new design will be available for public review once additional work is done, and we coordinate with the regulatory agencies to ensure that their requirements can be met,” added Rollman.
Access ramps were also a topic of this discussion at this meeting. Township officials said there are growing public concerns that access ramps may be precursors to turnpike slip ramps. “We are continuing to evaluate the placement of access ramps throughout this project corridor because it is important to have efficient vehicular mobility on limited access roadways like the turnpike for maintenance purposes as well as emergency response,” said Rollman.
The Turnpike Commission has indicated that the amount of public input it has received combined with input and support from state and local officials is unprecedented for this type of project. “State Senators John Rafferty, Constance Williams, Rob Wonderling, and State Representatives Kate Harper, Jay Moyer, Michael Gerber have been working side-by-side with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to ensure the communities’ concerns are being heard during the final engineering design of this major roadway improvement project,” noted Rollman, “and we appreciate their efforts.”
The Township Managers and Engineers for Plymouth, Whitpain, Worcester, Upper Gwynedd and Towamencin in concert with the Montgomery County Planning Commission have also been key partners in the Turnpike Commission’s project development process. “We may not always agree, but we all gain a better understanding of the real issues that are critical to this project and the surrounding communities. We plan to continue with this partnership through the final design phase and construction to accomplish the best outcome possible on this project,” commented Rollman.
Public comment received at the Turnpike’s Plans Displays held this spring and at numerous other public forums held by state and local officials influenced the project’s alternative engineering design work currently underway. Nearly 800 people attended the Turnpike Commission’s plans display meetings. Since that time, the Turnpike project team has met with the Montgomery County State Senators and Representatives as well as Township officials to address public concerns with property impacts and traffic noise. Additionally, members of the Turnpike project team have attended township supervisor’s meetings, and are conducting incident management meetings with the townships throughout the project corridor.
The first phase of construction work on the Northeastern Extension total reconstruction and widening project entails the replacement of seven overhead structures. Kriebel Road and Bethel Road bridges are the first of these structures targeted for replacement with construction slated to start in the spring of 2008.
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