By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Lower Moreland Township resident Jim O’Neill and many of his neighbors have a clear, strong opinion about the state’s plans for fixing traffic problems in the Woodhaven Road/Byberry Road corridor.
“No one here seems to bear any resemblance to a doormat, as far as I can see,” O’Neill bellowed during a meeting of about 250 Lower Moreland area residents last week. “Let’s show PennDOT we don’t have ‘Welcome’ written on our foreheads.”
A welcome mat to Northeast Philadelphia is exactly what many Eastern Montgomery County residents feel they would become if any of the four current Woodhaven project “build” proposals are adopted by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
That’s why O’Neill and his wife Karen, along with a handful of their neighbors, organized the fledgling Citizens Alliance of Lower Moreland and Bryn Athyn (CALMBA) in October and why they called the Nov. 18 meeting, held at Lower Moreland High School.
They say that the suburbanites should take a more active role in the planning process so that they can protect their community from unwanted expansion of state and local roads in both Philadelphia and Montgomery counties.
“When PennDOT comes to town … for a public meeting, we want you to be prepared,” said Jim O’Neill. “We want you to have insight. We don’t want you to be caught flat-footed.”
O’Neill reported to the neighbors that state officials could call a public hearing on their latest plans as early as December or January. A PennDOT spokesman told the Northeast Times that such a meeting would likely not occur until early spring.
But the department does plan to release a draft of its environmental impact statement for public review either next month or early next year.
The statement includes assessments of the sites potentially impacted by the Woodhaven project, including wetlands, streams, floodplains, parks and wooded areas.
“We will be circulating it for public review,” said Gene Blaum, PennDOT District 6 spokesman. “That will be followed by a public comment period. There will be public hearings where people can come give testimony. Or you can write a letter instead of going to a hearing and your comments would weigh the same.”
Environmental issues are just one of many areas of concern for the Montco residents with the Woodhaven proposals. Reading from a prepared statement, one female presenter last week cited problems including increased crime, additional local traffic, pollution, loss of green space, decreasing property values and the ultimate flight of residents as consequences of the Woodhaven project.
According to PennDOT, 58,600 vehicles use the existing portion of Woodhaven Road west of Roosevelt Boulevard every day. Although many of those cars and trucks exit onto the Boulevard, an estimated combined 40,000 vehicles use either Woodhaven Road or Byberry Road, between the Boulevard and Evans Street, each day.
Meanwhile, the daily count a few blocks west on Byberry Road, at the temporary CSX railroad bridge, is about 32,000.
Lower Moreland does not want to see any more of that traffic filtered to its doorstep.
“While we are close to Philadelphia, we enjoy a quiet, country-like setting. We have the best of what both have to offer,” Jim O’Neill said, adding that he would like to keep it that way.
PennDOT currently has four “build” proposals on the table and one “no-build.” The last public hearing for the project was held Jan. 29, also at Lower Moreland High. During that session, the department showed three build options, along with no-build.
One option would be to extend the existing Woodhaven Road Expressway (Route 63) west from Evans Street to Philmont Avenue. A second option would be to extend the expressway from Evans to Bustleton Avenue, then route traffic north on Bustleton to County Line Road. The third build option would be to widen two-lane Byberry Road through the Northeast and into Montgomery County.
The new, fourth option is a combination of the full Woodhaven Extension and the Bustleton Avenue options. Some westbound traffic would be routed from Woodhaven via Bustleton to County Line Road, while other traffic would continue on Woodhaven through Bustleton and to Philmont Avenue.
While O’Neill’s new organization opposes all four existing build proposals, the Somerton Civic Association in the Northeast endorses the Woodhaven Extension option as it seeks to protect old homes and buildings along Byberry Road as well as businesses along Bustleton Avenue.
SCA president Mary Jane Hazell disagrees with the belief that extending Woodhaven Road would bring problems to Lower Moreland.
“There’s an imaginary line there. What they (already) have, we have. What we have, they have,” said Hazell, who did not attend the Nov. 18 meeting.
“They have a country-like setting. We have a country-like setting. They have small roads. We have small roads. If they have flooding, we have flooding.”
Hazell thinks the warning of increased crime in the township is merely a scare tactic.
“That’s stupid,” she said. “They already have crime.”
Hazell pointed out the high number of suburban youths arrested in Somerton in recent weeks for trespassing on the former Byberry hospital site.
“The (7th Police District) captain told me they arrested thirty kids over at Byberry, and they’re all from outside the city,” Hazell said.
“I don’t care where you are. If your kids want to (commit crime), they’re going to find a way. This shows you what the (Lower Moreland) mentality is.”
The Somerton Civic leader argues that extending Woodhaven Road would actually benefit both communities.
“It’s going to be an asset to Lower Moreland, because the only people who are going to get off there are Lower Moreland people,” Hazell said. “They’re dense.”
Not true, says Karen O’Neill, who explained to her neighbors that PennDOT’s own data shows that many affected intersections would still have delays even after construction.
In its “Level Of Service” analysis, the department assigns a letter grade to an intersection as a qualitative rating.
An A grade is defined, “Excellent traffic flow, favorable progression, most vehicles do not stop.”
An F grade is, “Traffic volume exceeds available capacity. All vehicles must stop at least once, and possibly must wait through several signal cycles before proceeding.”
If nothing is done in the Woodhaven/Byberry corridor, all affected intersections in the area would operate at an F level in the year 2026, according to PennDOT. Yet, Karen O’Neill pointed out, the best of the build alternatives would bring only half of the intersections to a C rating or above in 2026, the so-called “design year” for the project.
Meanwhile, the other three build options would leave from 55 percent to 73 percent of affected intersections at a D level or worse. The D level is defined, “The influence of congestion becomes noticeable. Few vehicles advance through the intersection without stopping.”
Said Karen O’Neill: “After we spend millions and millions of dollars, after we basically hand over our environment and alter our way of life, we’ll still have delays.”
CALMBA concedes that there is a traffic problem, but seeks to work with PennDOT to identify an acceptable alternative solution.
Joe Capella, PennDOT’s project manager, told the Times that the experts have been down that road many times before.
“We’ve looked at thirteen other alternatives since the beginning of drafting the (environmental impact statement) in the early nineteen-nineties,” Capella said. “These are the best.”
PennDOT could design a road system to further improve traffic at the affected intersections, Capella said, but “if we were to make all intersections better than a D, we would see even more community ramifications.”
Most of the earlier ideas didn’t survive because they didn’t meet minimum federal requirements for reducing traffic congestion or safety, he continued.
The project is subject to federal guidelines because most of the estimated $40 million to $50 million price tag will come from Washington. The Federal Highway Administration dictated that PennDOT design the project for estimated 2026 traffic volume.
In response to accusations by CALMBA leaders that the department has not involved the public in the design process, Capella said that since Jan. 29, the department has held two public meetings, two meetings with public officials from affected communities and six “special purpose” meetings. Special purpose meetings are those with civic associations, churches, historical societies or other community groups.
Also, the department maintains a Web site with the latest project information (www.woodhavenroad.com) and conducts mailings to affected municipalities. PennDOT would be willing to attend a regularly scheduled Lower Moreland Township Commission meeting, the project manager said, but it has not been asked to do so.
CALMBA has started its own Web site containing information about the organization as well as the the extension project itself ( www.stopwoodhavenroad.com ).
A few residents at the Nov. 18 meeting expressed concern that PennDOT had already begun clearing out the landscape to make way for the Woodhaven extension. A man reported that workers had cut down some trees along the rear of his Byberry Road property.
According to Blaum, the PennDOT spokesman, workers have been taking down “unsightly and deteriorating” trees on department-owned ground that has been earmarked for the road project for decades. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at bkenny@phillynews.com or 215-354-3031