PennDOT has had a busy week: In addition to a ribbon-cutting celebrating a newly widened 6.5-mile swath of Route 202 in Tredyffrin and East Whiteland townships, the department announced that the State Transportation Commission has updated its 12-Year Transportation program.
Of particular interest to area motorists: the pending widening of Route 322 in Concord Township, a project that has been on the drawing board for more than a decade.
Chuck Davies, assistant executive for PennDOT’s District 6, which includes the five-county Philadelphia region, said construction could begin in the first half of next year. “It’s a funded project,” he said. “It’s already proceeding.”
Davies said work is underway on a number of pre-construction components, such as obtaining right of ways and environmental clearances. Like the Route 202 project, work would be done in phases, with the first phase likely taking more than a year, Davies said.
The first phase of construction will cover Route 322 from Route 1 to Featherbed Lane, and the second section will run from Featherbed Lane to Route 95, according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission website. Plans call for improving several intersections, adding turning lanes, reconstructing the traffic signal at Fellowship and Station roads, adding a signal at the Mattson Road and Featherbed Lane intersection, and widening part of the highway to four lanes.
The new 12-Year Transportation plan anticipates $61.9 billion being available over the next 12 years for improvements to roads, bridges, transit systems, airports and railroads. That compares with $63.3 billion in the last update in 2014, according to a PennDOT press release.
“Through ongoing efficiencies at PennDOT, we continue to stretch taxpayers’ dollars to reach as many transportation needs as possible,” PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said in the release. “This update reflects the progress we are making, chipping away at our large backlog of pavement and bridge needs while adding some capacity expansion to address long-standing desires for better mobility.”
The newly adopted program, which takes effect Oct. 1, anticipates $11.3 billion being available for state highway and bridge projects in the first four years. Public transit is in line for $8.6 billion; aviation, $354 million; rail freight, $229 million, and multimodal projects, $305 million.
Public input early in the 12-Year Transportation program played a key role in identifying investments in the various transportation modes. The plan has been submitted to the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration for review and approval. The Federal Highway Administration coordinates with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the plan’s conformity with air-quality requirements, the release said.
The Transportation Commission, which is chaired by Richards, consists of 10 appointed citizens and the majority and minority chairs of the state House and Senate Transportation committees. State law requires the commission to review and update the 12-Year Program every two years; no capital project can move forward unless it is included in the 12-Year Program, the release said.
Information about the 12-Year Transportation program update is available at www.TalkPATransportation.com. For more details about the Route 322 upgrades, visit http://www.us322-conchester.com.
See Contributors Page
https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/
