PHILADELPHIA:Toll Express Lanes for US-1 Roosevelt Blvd Proposed

Southwest from N Broad St across the Schuylkill River US-1 is the Roosevelt Expressway, another motorway, which is a spur off I-76, the Schuylkill Expressway.

Roosevelt Boulevard (US-1) was designed early in the century by developers opening up the northeastern suburbs and also presented as the grand entryway into Philadelphia from New York with those four roadways in the generous right of way. But with construction of Delaware River bridges into New Jersey downtown and of the turnpikes and I-95, US-1 has fallen into disuse as a gateway and is now quite shabby.

Andrew Terhune, a Philadelphia builder points out that electronic tolling provides a great opportunity to get investors involved in renovation of the Boulevard. The two central roadways he says could be concessioned out for construction of toll express lanes. They would be depressed in a trench to provide grade separation from about 20 intersections that presently have tedious traffic signals. In places the express lanes could be covered over (or ‘lidded’) for parks or other ground level uses.

The existing outer roadways could act as both frontage roads with slip ramps to and from the express lanes and as through roads for motorists not wanting to pay tolls to go express. Improvement of the route, Terhune says, would be a great boost to the northern area of the city which is heavily congested. The route would be an alternative to I-95 and a more direct way both to the city and the western suburbs. I-95 to the east along the river, needs substantial renovation. The upgrade of US-1 would take pressure off it during that work.

The Penna pike has no interchange with I-95 though a $400m project is in design to build that connection. This extravagant IC project might be able to be simplified and reduced in cost if US-1 was restored with express lanes and made an effective gateway to Philadelphia again.

Actually it turns out there’s a Major Investment Study (MIS) under way. One alternative involves central depressed express lanes with slip ramp connections to the outer frontage roads, but it does not include, or exclude, tolling. There are variations with and without HOV/busway. So far so good.

There are also alternatives for putting freight rail, commuter rail, heavy metro rail and light rail in the middle! And there’s a parallel freight line a mile west that is little used. The MIS has been set up with Federal Transit Administration money and involves the City of Philadelphia as well as SEPTA, the local rail/bus transit operator. No road-thinkers are involved. So it’s a rail/bus leaning crowd that’s running this show. Anyone interested needs to move fast because they are close to a major narrowing of the alternatives for more detailed consideration. The boulevard serves an estimated 400,000 people in Philadelphia’s northeast suburbs. (Contact Clayton Lane PB MIS 215 790 3142 www.libertynet.org/~netis A. Terhune 215 938 8246 ATERHUNE@tollbrothersinc.com)