Northeast Extension Widening Final Plans Shown at Open House

Residents living along the corridor of the $150 million total reconstruction and six-lane widening of five miles of the Northeast Extension from Lansdale to Berks Road – and even commuters that travel said corridor – got a final understanding of the design plans at the last open house at Towamencin Fire Co. Tuesday night before Spring 2014 groundbreaking.

What you have now between and Berks Road are two lanes northbound and southbound at 12 feet wide each, with a two-foot median/barrier and 10-foot shoulders.

When all’s said and done at Thanksgiving 2016, this section of the turnpike will be transformed into three 12-foot lanes in both directions, plus 12-foot shoulders and a 26-foot median – two 12-foot shoulders and a two-foot concrete barrier.

Furthermore, EZ-Pass customers can expect two new auxiliary ramps with access to and from Sumneytown Pike.

A new ramp will be installed to allow northbound commuters to exit the turnpike with EZ-Pass and arrive at Sumneytown Pike at the current interchange entrance. This ramp would be constructed behind the Holiday Inn.

A second ramp would be constructed for southbound commuters to get onto the turnpike via EZ-Pass from Sumneytown Pike near Old Forty Foot Road.

A new access route for everyone to use will span from Towamencin Avenue to the Lansdale Interchange.

At present, the same widening and reconstruction project is underway between Berks Road and Mid-County. That project will wrap up in Fall 2013, said Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission spokesman Carl DeFebo.

Once the Sumneytown Pike bridge is reconstructed spanning the turnpike between February 2012 and October 2013, roadwork will begin by May 2014.

The Lansdale Interchange ramp will be constructed in 2014 as well. The Bustard Road bridge will also be reconstructed in 2014.

While the existing roadway contains 10 inches of concrete and four to six inches of asphalt overlay, the new roadway will be six inches of subbase, four inches of asphalt, four inches of bituminous concrete, eight inches of Superpave base, three inches of Superpave binder and two inches of Superpave wearing course.

"Nobody imagined 53-foot tractor trailers carrying 100,000 pounds of freight in 1955," DeFebo said. "The tractor trailer really is what impacts the road. That’s what we have to design for, and why we are building the road three feet plus thicker."

DeFebo said the project was split into two projects so it wouldn’t disrupt commuters.

“We operate 545 miles of turnpike, and this is the busiest four-lane section at almost 66,000 vehicles a day,” DeFebo said. “It is the single most heavily-traveled four-lane section of the turnpike in the entire state.”

The PTC attributes that to a rise in development in the North Penn area and the willingness of people to drive south toward Philadelphia for work.

The last time the PTC presented an open house like this was in 2007.

At that time, there were 75 potential properties identified as being impacted by the project, including by eminent domain.

“Over the past four years, we’ve been able to finetune the design and eliminate many of those property impacts. Today, as we stand here in final design, we only are going to impact six residential properties. And none of those are relocations, meaning we don’t have to take anybody’s house or relocate a family,” DeFebo said.

He said that is unusual because a project of this magnitude and scope, with its widened lanes, usually requires acquisition of homes.

“We have been able to build retaining walls in a lot of these areas that will allow us to basically minimize, but not completely eliminate, disruption of property,” he said.

In a typical non-retaining wall project, the PTC would need to take about 30 feet of right-of-way in order to construct a 1.5:1 maximum slope.

“There’s still going to be some impacts, but we’ve done our best to minimize those,” said DeFebo.

He is referring to the 20 or more properties that will be impacted for three years by contractors stockpiling materials or establishing entryways for equipment.

“Those property owners will be reimbursed,” he said.

A majority of residents and commuters favored the reconstruction project.

“People who live next to the turnpike don’t always love construction. They often have a lot of concerns and that’s one of the reasons why we are here,” DeFebo said. “However, we have a responsibility to operate and maintain a safe highway. We’ve got to do this project. This is our operational mandate given to us by the General Assembly and governor.”

DeFebo said the area is unique: a lot of people who have homes on the stretch of the corridor get on the turnpike and head south in the morning.

“They see the congestion, they see the delays,” he said. “There’s a cost to their time as well.”

Christine Gascon, of Candlewood Way, is one of those people.

She is thrilled for the project. She said she would have never thought the turnpike would be widened one day.

“It’s a nightmare every day, every morning. There’s so much traffic,” said Gascon. “The minute a car breaks down, the minute there’s an accident – I can’t tell you how often I’m late for work to Flourtown.”

She said the noise wall would be helpful. Most importantly, she hoped the construction would get rid of some trees and “jungle terrain” on her property.

“Towamencin Township will not let us touch it. They will not let us hire a contractor or rent equipment or ourselves go in and take it out,” Gascon said. “We own it, but it’s unusable.”

She found the open house to be informational: she learned about easements and how bridges are being repaired and how traffic will be detoured.

“My biggest concern about the project is the animals: where are the rabbit, skunk and groundhog going to live?” she said.

Leo and Lenora Fitzgerald, of Upper Gwynedd, are not impacted by the project, but they came out on Tuesday to see how plans are coming along in the final stages.

“We were curious,” said Lenora. “There hasn’t been anything totally explaining it in the paper. It looks good; it looks like they have it planned out.”

Leo said he puts 100 miles a day on his car for work.

“I was hoping there was an off-ramp at Morris Road, and save me about 30 miles a day, which is not going to happen,” he said. “I don’t mind it in terms of construction, but I think it might bring more traffic to the area, which will just make it more congested and hard to get around.”

He said he takes the Northeast Extension on weekends, and there’s not a ton of traffic. However, one accident and all lanes are shut down.

“With six lanes and a 12-foot buffer on each side, there’s more chances for police on turnpike, and I have a lead foot,” he said.

Jerry Rollman, project manager, said a majority of the feedback on Tuesday was positive.

“Some of those in an area in Worcester have asked for a noise wall that didn’t meet requirements. That’s probably the biggest issue,” he said.

Noise walls will be installed in areas where they are necessary, DeFebo said. There are about five linear miles of noise walls for the entire project.

So, how does the PTC formulate the need for a noise wall?

According to Rollman, you take the area of the wall, multiply it by $25 a square foot, divide it by the number of benefitted residents. If the number is $50,000 or under, the wall is deemed reasonable. If it is over $50,000, it is not reasonable.

“You test the noise. If it is high enough, it’s warranted. Then you check if its’ feasible – does it impact the health or safety and reduce noise level? If it meets that, it goes to reasonableness,” he said.

This project is funded by toll revenues, DeFebo said. There is no relation between this project and annual toll increases per Act 44 of 2007. DeFebo said the PTC pays PennDOT $450 million a year for statewide road and transit projects.

“This project has been in design since 2005, so funding for this was identified before toll increases,” DeFebo said.

This project is not only geared to benefit commuters, but also emergency responders.

“Our objective is to be operating on a safe highway, and right now, the roadway is narrow, shoulders are limited,  and some have none whatsoever,” said Towamencin Fire Co. Chief Dean Miller.

“When the construction is done, the roadway is pushing 120 feet wide, with three lanes, shoulder, and center barrier,” he said. “That’s a lot more room for us to operate, and a lot more room for people to avoid issues that may happen on the highway.”