Anyone hoping for a consensus opinion to emerge from last week’s public hearing examining the various alternatives for the Woodhaven Road/Route 63 project, including a “no-build” or status quo option, didn’t get what they were looking for.
A survey circulated by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials during the Jan. 29 meeting at suburban Lower Moreland High School produced anything but definitive results. As of Friday, more than 1,000 people had taken the survey.
Most did it at the meeting, while others accessed the questionnaire on the project’s Web site www.woodhavenroad.com
The first problem with the survey, PennDOT District 6 Administrator Andrew Warren noted during the public forum, was that it did not give residents the option of choosing “no-build.” Instead, it asked people to choose one of the three “build” alternatives that “best warrants further study.”
Of 881 responses (there were an additional 130 partially completed surveys with no response to the question), 48 percent favored the Bustleton Avenue alternative, while 46 percent selected the Woodhaven Road Extension alternative.
A mere 6 percent favored an alternative that would widen Byberry Road in Somerton and Lower Moreland. Citizens can still respond to the questionnaire through the aforementioned Web site. Polling closes on Friday.
There is one common aspect to all four alternatives, including the no-build. In all four, an existing temporary bridge that has spanned the CSX railroad tracks at Byberry Road since 1995 will be replaced by a permanent structure.
Also, the three build alternatives include planned upgrades to Northeast Avenue, extending it north to meet Worthington Road at Byberry Road.
Here are the four alternatives as presented at the public hearing, along with what residents of the directly affected neighborhoods are saying about each proposal:

BYBERRY ROAD UPGRADE

Under this alternative, the existing portion of Woodhaven Road, which terminates at Evans Street, would be extended across the CSX tracks and connect with Byberry Road, just west of Worthington Road. Byberry Road would be widened from two lanes to four between Worthington Road and Huntingdon Pike in Lower Moreland.
Few seemed to endorse this plan at the meeting. The folks in Somerton east of Bustleton Avenue say that widening Byberry would worsen an already horrible situation.
Instead of the gridlock they endure now, there would be a high-speed avenue cutting through their residential community. Their stretch of Byberry is home to schools, historic buildings (including an old, retired fire station) and several senior apartment complexes. By most accounts, numerous homes and other buildings would be demolished in the process.
Somerton Civic Association president Mary Jane Hazell threatened to block traffic on Byberry before allowing it to grow to four lanes. Many Lower Moreland residents oppose widening Byberry in their section, too, for many of the same reasons. Meanwhile, some residents suggested that a steep hill that begins between Pine Road and Buck Road makes Byberry too treacherous in poor weather conditions to be designated as a state highway.
Also, one Lower Moreland woman said, most westbound traffic turns off of the road before reaching Huntingdon Pike.
In fact, while 32,000 cars use Byberry east of Bustleton every day, only 18,000 use the same road just west of Bustleton, according to PennDOT figures.

WOODHAVEN EXTENSION

This alternative would extend the Woodhaven expressway from its current terminus at Evans Street, ending at Philmont Avenue near Byberry Road. It would be four lanes wide. Also, Byberry would be widened to four lanes from Philmont to Huntingdon Pike.
This is the plan that most Somerton residents, including Hazell, have endorsed from day one. It responds to their request for relief on Byberry Road east of Bustleton Avenue, protects existing homes and structures on that thoroughfare and makes use of ground purchased by PennDOT in the 1970s.
Most residents of a subdivision of the Somerton community west of Bustleton Avenue known as Westwood oppose extending Woodhaven west of Byberry, however.
The new road would cut through their section, much of which was built after land there had been purchased and designated for use by the state.
Still, several Westwood residents claimed at last week’s meeting, the original Woodhaven plans called for a two-lane road, not a four-lane one. The existing right of way is too narrow to support four lanes, they argue, and would bring traffic even closer to their homes.
Many Lower Moreland residents oppose the full extension, too. They have challenged the concept for many years, theorizing that it would only shift Somerton’s traffic problems to their community, but not solve them. In the past, the suburbanites have warned of ancillary problems, like increased pollution and crime in their community from all of the “city” traffic.

BUSTLETON AVENUE

The Bustleton Avenue alternative calls for the extension of Woodhaven Road west to Bustleton, which would be widened from the new expressway interchange north to County Line Road. County Line Road would serve as a primary east-west route into Montgomery and Bucks counties. It is four lanes wide in most areas up to Easton Road/Route 611, but is two lanes in sections of Lower Moreland.
Residents of the township expressed differing opinions on the plan during last week’s meeting. Some favored it as an alternative to widening Byberry Road. County Line has already begun the upgrade process, they argued. Some residents of the County Line area disagreed, claiming that their residential street is no better suited for increased traffic than any other in the area.
Meanwhile, the plan would not impact the Westwood area as the full Woodhaven Extension would, so several residents of that section endorsed the alternative. Yet, other Somerton residents, including Hazell, say it stops short of the ultimate goal for the project— long-term relief from excessive traffic.

NO-BUILD

Hazell has been joined by state Sen. Mike Stack (D-5th dist.) and state Rep. George Kenney (R-170th dist.) in condemning the status quo as unacceptable.
Yet, many Westwood and Lower Moreland residents stated at last week’s meeting that they’d rather see nothing done than see their homes and communities disrupted by any new or widened roads.