By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer
Northeast Philadelphia residents should start warming up their public speaking voices and dusting off their letter writing tools because the Woodhaven Road project is on the move again.
And sometime next month, it’ll be arriving at a high school auditorium near them.
On Feb. 5, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials met privately with elected officials from the Northeast and Bucks and Montgomery counties to present a new plan for the long-debated completion of the Route 63 expressway.
Calling it the Reduced Impact Alternative, PennDOT officials say they will introduce the plan to the public during a mid-March meeting and hearing at George Washington High School in Somerton.
The date of that session has not been set.
The public and members of the news media were not permitted to attend the Feb. 5 meeting at the Buck Hotel in Feasterville, during which PennDOT also shot down the Route 1 Alternative proposed last April by a group of homeowners opposed to extending Woodhaven Road.
The existing portion of the highway ends abruptly just west of Roosevelt Boulevard and funnels onto two-lane Evans Street, which dumps heavy through-traffic onto residential Byberry Road.
More than 40 years ago, state transportation officials proposed a highway to link Interstate 95 with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Later, they scaled back the plan to end the road in Lower Moreland Township.
It never got that far. The existing 3.5-mile stretch opened in the 1960s. The Evans Street link was seen as a temporary fix until the road could be finished. But public opposition, largely from suburban Montgomery County, and funding shortages have stalled progress.
According to Gene Blaum, spokesman for PennDOT’s District 6, the state agency took one of its existing four “build” options — the Bustleton Avenue Alternative Modified — and changed it in response to public criticisms received during two public hearings last July.
State Rep. George Kenney, a Northeast Philadelphia Republican, said that transportation officials removed many elements opposed by community members.
“Anything where (PennDOT) met with real consternation, they backed off from,” said Kenney, who attended the Feb. 5 closed meeting.
The new plan still includes the extension of Woodhaven Road westward from Evans Street to Philmont Avenue. The road would be four lanes wide east of Bustleton Avenue and two lanes west of Bustleton.
Most of the changes were made in Montgomery County. Designers scrapped plans to widen a series of two-lane local streets to four and five lanes. The list includes parts of County Line Road, Huntingdon Pike and Byberry Road, west of Philmont Avenue.
In the Northeast, the main modification is eliminating the planned extension of Northeast Avenue northward to intersect Byberry Road.
According to PennDOT, the changes would eliminate many property acquisitions required for the project under the state’s eminent domain law. The new plan would eliminate 94 potential partial property acquisitions and one total property acquisition.
Meanwhile, the new plan would dramatically reduce traffic delays throughout the project area during the afternoon rush hour, the state agency claims. Based on year 2026 projections, the average delay per vehicle would be reduced by 80 percent.
Under the Bustleton Modified Alternative, the projected reduction would be 89 percent.
Of 16 intersections included in the project area, 12 would see delay reductions, including 10 with reductions of more than 50 percent, under the Reduced Impact Alternative.
With the Bustleton Modified plan, the corresponding figures would be 13 and 12, respectively.
Those familiar with the new plan say it’s much like a two-phase plan proposed last June by U.S. Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, a Democrat representing parts of Northeast Philadelphia and Montgomery County.
Hoeffel, who is running for the U.S. Senate, consulted with Montgomery County Planning Commission transportation chief Leo Bagley on the proposal, which called for construction of the Woodhaven Road extension in an initial phase and widening of other area roads only if necessary in a second phase.
That plan received support from Kenney, state Sen. Mike Stack and City Councilman Brian O’Neill, among others.
Kenney remains concerned about some elements of the latest proposal.
“There are parts that I don’t like,” the legislator said. “They’re still talking about properties, taking some businesses along Bustleton Avenue. My question is, ‘Why do you have to do that?’”
Properties along the west side of Bustleton Avenue between Trevose Road and the Leo Mall area are in the most danger, Kenney added. That stretch would be widened to six lanes. Now, one portion of Bustleton Avenue has four lanes and another portion has five lanes.
Somerton Civic Association president Mary Jane Hazell, who has been a staunch supporter of the Woodhaven extension and opponent of property acquisitions, is taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I’ve seen nothing at this point,” she said. “I won’t know (what I think) for sure until I see the plans for myself.”
PennDOT officials indicated at the Feb. 5 meeting that the Reduced Impact Alternative is the one they would submit to the Federal Highway Administration for approval — that is, if community opposition doesn’t shoot it down.
Also, the state agency is interested in reaching a conclusion to the process quickly.
“Sooner or later, unless someone comes up with something totally new, a decision must come,” said PennDOT District 6 administrator Andy Warren, reflecting comments made by PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler at the recent meeting.
“And I got the impression that that time is rapidly nearing. Sooner or later — sooner really — we’re going to (have to) build it or bury it and move on.”
In eliminating the Route 1 Alternative from consideration, PennDOT cited several flaws. The proposal does not sufficiently reduce traffic congestion and delays in the project area, does not improve traffic and pedestrian safety and does not improve traffic collection and distribution. By year 2026, the plan would leave 10 of 16 area intersections with failing levels of service to motorists. The Tri-County Coalition, which consists of community groups from Montgomery, Bucks and Northeast Philadelphia, introduced the plan as the “Community Friendly Alternative.”
But the plan drew criticism from other residents and elected officials in the Northeast, who said that the plan was essentially a “no-build” alternative and would force commuters to use neighborhood streets to get from the existing Woodhaven Road to points north and west. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com