County staff propose toll to help finance new interchange and connector to Penn Pike

Staff in Montgomery County north of Philadelphia have proposed a special toll surcharge to raise capital to help pay for a new interchange and connector road from the Pennsylvania Turnpike into central Norristown. The project is an all-electronic tolled interchange on the east bank of the Schuylkill River and a spur road. The spur - termed locally the Lafayette Street Extension or Corridor project - is 3.1km (1.9 miles) of signalized arterial into Norristown.

Estimated total cost is $160m.

Norristown (pop 30k) is an old riverside town 26km (16 miles) north of downtown Philadelphia. The governmental seat of what is now one of the largest and most prosperous counties (pop 750k) in the Philadelphia metro area Norristown itself grew poorer and rundown while malls and suburbs developed in the countryside around.

Going for Norristown is its site on a picturesque stretch of the river, and historic buildings suited o rehabilitation.

Part of the Norristown's problem has been awkward access to the the turnpike mainline.

There's long been a "Norristown Interchange" so-called on the Turnpike at Mile Post 333 (MP333) but it is several miles to the east in Plymouth Meeting township even though the Turnpike goes right by.

There's a nice site for a close-Norristown interchange at MP330 on the east bank of the Schulkill River almost midway between the MP333 interchange in Plymouth Meeting and the Valley Forge interchange at MP226.

No grant money focuses minds on tolls

Local officials have been lobbying for years for grants to fully fund the interchange and connector road. That has helped fund permitting and preliminary designs. But told bluntly last year that not enough grant money will come their way to complete the project Montgomery County officials came up with the toll financing proposal.

Leo Bagley head staffer at the county planning commission says the county is flexible about how the project should be done - with a private concession, or county revenue bonds. The project can tap a mix of county and state grant money and some $75m committed by the Turnpike Commission under its approved capital program - a total of perhaps $100m.

Bagley says the county is open to investor proposals to finance and toll the interchange.

The Turnpike Commission does trip-based or 'ticket' tolls based on miles traveled in this stretch of the Turnpike, so the interchange toll would constitute a surcharge on top of the normal toll. That surcharge might be 50c, 75c or $1.00 for cars Bagley says - according to preliminary calculations.

Traffic modeling shows the new interchange should generate about 2.5m trips a year (6.8k/day) in the first year doubling to 5m/year (13.7k/day) over 30 years. The county is looking to do an investment grade traffic and revenue study of the project to support either public bonding or a private concession.

Construction consists of:

1. an all movements interchange on the Turnpike including a 150 degree curving bridged ramp for eastbound Turnpike to Norristown traffic, and a pair of simple curving ramps to make Turnpike westbound connections. The Norristown to Turnpike eastbound movement uses an existing overpass and adds a simple ramp.

2. about 3km (1.8 miles) of limited access 4 lane divided surface arterial, part upgrade of Lafayette Street, part extension with nine signalized intersections

3. A half diamond interchange with US202 at the Dannehower Bridge which is the northern end of the project.

An earlier plan terminated the spur road short of US202.

Bagley says that by linking to US202 the project serves a larger area than Norristown - an area with perhaps 100k population.

The project has wide public support and is an important part of a recently adopted Norristown Economic Revitalization Strategy.

Tolling would be cashless all-electronic in order to reduce the footprint of the project and to lower costs.

Consultants who have worked on the project so far are McCormick Taylor engineering and environment and Aecom DMJM Harris modeling and financing.

see

http://planning.montcopa.org/planning/cwp/view,a,1458,q,54860.asp

Contact Leo Bagley at Montgomery County PA lbagley@mail.montcopa.org

TOLLROADSnews 2008-05-13