Montgomery County PA proposing tolls on US422 to rebuild expressway, fund rail extension

Montgomery County is leading toll revenue and engineering studies and public outreach for major rail and road improvements in the US422 corridor northwest of Philadelphia to be funded by collecting all-electronic tolls on the presently untolled highway. The road/rail improvements would extend along the route of US422 from Norristown near the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76/I-276/US202 interchange) through Valley Forge, Pottstown, Reading to Wyomissing along the upper reaches of the Schuylkill River valley, a distance of about 40 miles (65km).

A preliminary study of tolling by DMJM Harris favors tolls at two points in the corridor over single point tolling at the US422 Schuykill River Bridge.

Toll express lanes were determined to be physically unsuitable and economically nonviable.

Two toll points are proposed:

- at the western end of US422 near the Berks-Montgomery County line

- at the east end at the US202 interchange

Assuming a $1 toll at each toll point and 5% diversion of traffic at the river bridge and 20% at the western end there would be daily toll transactions of 90k, generating revenue to support bonding of $474m. This would allow some $111m of road improvements and toll equipment plus $253m toward the rail extension, the DMJM Harris study suggests. About another $90m of PennDOT and federal funds would go to the projects.

The report concludes: "Preliminary analysis suggests that tolling existing highway capacity on US422 is a feasible strategy for generating the funds necessary to advance the rail project, as well as providing $51 million to complete the funding sources needed for the River Crossing Project and $50 million toward other roadway improvement along US422 including the planned construction around Pottstown. Tolling accesses a new local funding source for highway and transit projects that are designed to improve mobility and support economic growth in the region..."

That assumes a 2% annual growth in traffic in the corridor.

However the study says:

"Even under a more conservative traffic growth scenario, toll revenues should be able to fund up to $204 million of project costs."

Reaction so far good to toll funding

Leo Bagley director of transportation planning at the Montgomery County planning commission says reaction so far to the proposals has been positive. Efforts to get federal and state funding for the upgrades in the corridor have come to nothing in the past.

Congestion on US422 is so bad people are prepared to accept tolls in the corridor if it enables them to fund improvements to the road and the rail line, Bagley thinks.

T&R, prelim eng, outreach contracts RFP

There's now about $625k available for:

- a level 1 traffic and revenue study of US422 tolls

- preliminary engineering on the expressway upgrade and the electric rail line

- public outreach

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission should be issuing a request for proposals for the studies before the end of May. Manager of the studies will be Bagley because Montgomery County has taken the lead and his county has most of the highway within its boundaries. Berks and Chester counties have small portions of the highway but greater lengths of the proposed rail line.

Some design work is already under way on improvements to the Schuykill River bridge and nearby interchanges (see graphic at end below) but there is little funding to build this with tolls.

Under the tolling proposal the whole length of the highway would be upgraded to modern expressway standards. At present it is about two-thirds obsolete expressway, and one third surface arterial with at-grade intersections. No major right of way needs to be acquired because the expressway will be modernized along the present route.

The far western end of the expressway project is slated to get less traffic than the eastern end.

That's in part because Reading/Wyomissing at the western end is already connected by I-176 a spur off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Although a slightly longer distance than US422 this I-176/I-76 (the Turnpike) route is an existing high quality link to the Philadelphia metro area. But the other communities further east are almost totally dependent on US422.

end-2010 date for completion of studies and outreach

Bagley says he hopes contracts can be awarded for the three studies (preliminary engineering and outreach may be combined in one study, and traffic and revenue in a second) by July. They would need to be complete by end-2010.

Counties, cities, regions best prospects

David Horner a former senior official at USDOT now with the New York law firm Allen & Overy says the big untapped toll market is at the county, regional, and city level - as illustrated by the PA/US422 project. Getting toll projects moved at the state level is so cumbersome, so contentious, so liable to bog down, Horner says, counties, cities and regional organizations provide the best prospects in the US for action.

Leo D Bagley, project manager at the Montgomery County Planning Commission, at
lbagley@montcopa.org or 610 278 3746

http://planning.montcopa.org/planning/site/default.asp

http://planning.montcopa.org/planning/cwp/view,a,1677,q,67495.asp

TOLLROADSnews 2009-04-22