Concerned residents in Langhorne Borough, Langhorne Manor and Middletown Township are asked to attend a public meeting April 16 meant to voice their concerns about the proposed U.S. 1 highway reconstruction project.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation [PennDOT] has proposed a cloverleaf, removal of Route 1 parallel access roads and other safety enhancements on a roughly four-mile portion of U.S. 1, known as Lincoln Highway.
A meeting intended to garner community opposition support from impacted citizens will be held at 7 p.m. on April 16 inside the American Legion Jesse W. Soby Post 148 building located at 115 West Richardson Avenue in Langhorne. The meeting is open to the public.
Daniel Nicastro, an Independent along with two recently elected Democrats, Lynn Barry and Devin Keating, were reportedly elected to Langhorne Manor Borough Council on the “strength of their opposition” to the proposed U.S. 1 redevelopment project, according to a No Cloverleaf Coalition press release.
Nicastro said while addressing safety aspects of the project are important, rerouting the roads due to the proposed cloverleaf would harm – rather than help – the communities it is intended to serve.
“The cloverleaf and sending all those people into the neighborhoods will cause a lot more problems than PennDOT and maybe others are willing to admit,” Nicastro said.
During last year’s election campaign Nicastro went “door to door” to listen to residents about their top concerns and priorities – in particular safety, increasing traffic and disruption on borough roads and other impacts of the service road closures to impacted communities.
“Because our council is split down the middle in terms of opposition and support, I … spoke with people door to door about their concerns and this topic came up – again and again,” Nicastro explained. “The closing of the access roads would funnel travel onto Highland and Gillam avenues, and my concern is the large number of bus stops, especially early in the morning and in the winter time, and the potential for children to be injured.”
Additional concerns include a decrease in liquid fuels funding due to eliminating the access roads and the possible impact to tax payers and the borough’s ability to fund and provide services without the funding.
“We rely on liquid fuels and grant money, and I feel like any decrease in that money will be felt one way or another,” said Nicastro.
Nicastro is concerned the time window is brief to have a direct impact on the PennDOT plan and calls on anyone who is concerned to speak up.
Eight out of nine seats won across the three municipalities during November’s elections were won by No Cloverleaf candidates, according to Paul Schneider, a co-leader member of the No Cloverleaf Coalition and Langhorne Borough Council member.
“It took a while for all three groups to connect and realize it’s not just one group’s problem– it’s everybody’s problem,” Schneider said.
The RC3 project is part of a roughly $227 million reconstruction plan located along U.S. 1 in Bucks County, according to Government Market News.
The RC3 portion upgrades to U.S. 1 begin north of the Penndel Interchange and complete just beyond the overpass at Corn Crib Lane.
“The improvements will replace aging infrastructure, improve traffic flow and expand multimodal access across the region,” Government Market News said.
READ: Voters Didn’t Let Anonymous Election Text Sway Langhorne Borough’s Mayoral Race
Schneider said Middletown Township and Langhorne Manor officials both voted for the concept in 2020; however Langhorne Borough Council did not have the opportunity to vote for it.
He said those opposed to the current plan seek alternatives before it’s too late.
“Another concern is the cloverleaf, which is an ‘if you build it, they will come’ [scenario] so if you make it easy for people to exit to the historic district in Langhorne Borough you will have more traffic there,” he explained.
Schneider said Langhorne Borough has consistently been opposed to the project; while Langhorne Manor previously had a 7-0 majority which became a 4-3 majority in support after the November election.
“The Langhorne Borough traffic engineer advanced a plan that pretty much retains the existing roadway configuration; creates safety improvements and promotes safety improvements on Route 1 with the large islands,” Schneider said.
Instead of a cloverleaf, a series of roundabouts have been suggested by No Cloverleaf advocates.
Schneider said two design options had been proposed along with a no build (do nothing) option.
“At the time, the vote was to give up the service roads, build up Route 1 and build this partial cloverleaf interchange to funnel traffic into the Langhorne Borough historic district,” he added.
Ken Yerges, a PennDOT design consultant and highway engineer traffic manager with Johnson Mirmiran & Thompson in York, York County, said the cloverleaf is part of the overall study performed.
“We evaluated traffic safety and looked at three different interchange options. The interchange including the cloverleaf was the safest option,” Yerges said.
He said the comment period remains open and PennDOT officials on the project continue to read and consider them.
“We’re still waiting to finish it and determine the final outcome and whether it will move forward,” Yerges said.
He explained roundabouts and an interchange “are not interchangeable” solutions to traffic flows, routing or congestion.
“We did investigate roundabouts at the top of the interchange – and the volume there [along with] roundabouts elsewhere in the project where it makes sense for them,” Yerges added.
PennDOT’s public comment period remains open.
Residents with project concerns or questions are directed to reach the Langhorne Manor Borough secretary at borough-secretary(at)langhornemanor.org; Langhorne Manor Borough manager at borough-manager(at)langhornemanor.org or Nicastro at dnicastro(at)langhornemanor.org, Barry at lbarry(at)langhornemanor.org and Keating at dmkeating(at)langhornemanor.org.
Other municipal board members may be found on each municipality’s website.For more information or to oppose the Route 1 project contact No Cloverleaf group at nocloverleaf(at)gmail.com or their Facebook page.
