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A proposed extension of SEPTA’s Norristown High Speed
Line on Mall Boulevard looking at the King of Prussia Mall Plaza. Submitted
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UPPER MERION >> A public workshop meeting to
discuss the five alternate route extensions of SEPTA’s Norristown high-speed
commuter rail line into Upper Merion was held Wednesday afternoon with more
than 75 residents offering comments on oversize maps of the alternate routes.
A similar two-hour workshop was held in the evening. The
next public comment meeting will be held in November to narrow the route
choices by detailing the environmental impact of the route locations, said
Byron Comati, the director of strategic planning and analysis for SEPTA.
The proposed, $500 million, 4- to 5-mile rail extension
is scheduled to begin construction in 2020 and start operations in 2023,
according to SEPTA planners. Financing will come from federal (up to 50
percent), state, Montgomery County and private funding.
“A draft environmental statement will be released for
public comment in December,” said Elizabeth Smith, a SEPTA project manager and
engineer. “Public meetings will be held before the ‘locally preferred
alternative’ is selected in April 2016. Another comment period will follow that
decision.”
Several design changes from earlier public meetings were
sketched out by Smith. A proposed “park and ride” lot at Valley Forge Towers
was moved to First Avenue. A plan to build in the median of the Pennsylvania
Turnpike was scrapped and the proposed route was moved to the south side of the
turnpike. An elevated loop around the business park would be built along First
Avenue instead.
After Smith’s presentation, the meeting moved to a series
of large round tables where residents gathered around oversize paper maps that
showed, in great detail, the proposed routes. The maps showed where about 40
feet of the rail right-of-way would be located near businesses and homes.
Retaining walls would surround some sections of the proposed routes while most
of the two rail lines would be built on elevated, concrete supports.
Two of the North Gulph Road alternate routes have a
station at the Village at Valley Forge that is under construction. Three of the
First Avenue alternate routes have train stations on First Avenue in the King
of Prussia business park.
“I fear the Route 202 alternate route, just because of
the three-year construction period,” said Sandi Wray, an Upper Merion resident
for 27 years. “The traffic flow is so heavy.”
Wray, a retired retail manager, said she liked the
alternate route that used the PECO power lines and the Pennsylvania Turnpike to
get to the King of Prussia Mall.
“I like the First Avenue branch alternate also,” Wray
said. “I would love to see it built.”
Resident Jeanne Moon said she also preferred the PECO and
turnpike route in the township.
Anthony Occhiolini, an Upper Merion resident for 51
years, said he liked the route going along the turnpike and the PECO power
lines.
“It would avoid the negative aspects of running along
Route 202,” Ochiolini said. “This is the first meeting I’ve come to.”
He also said it is important to have the rail project
built to help keep the “business and commercial interests healthy ― our local
economy.”
“There is definitely a positive affect on the community
but we have to evaluate the impact on individual homes and businesses,” said
state Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Dist. 149, before the evening presentation,
Briggs was one of the legislators who lobbied for federal
funds to finance the SEPTA route studies and preliminary work.
“The one route that would have the least impact on
residential communities would be my ideal but I’m not sure what that would be,”
Briggs said. “There is a survey right now to figure out what people think. This
is an educational process to explain the financing and the alternates.”
All of the proposed rail extensions branch off from the
Norristown High Speed Line and pass through the King of Prussia Mall on the way
to the King of Prussia business park.
“The first alternate route runs along the PECO power line
right-of-way to the mall and the business park. The second route uses the PECO
alignment and the Pennsylvania Turnpike right-of-way to the mall and then uses
North Gulph Road to get to the business park,” Smith said. “The third route
uses the PECO and Pennsylvania Turnpike to the mall and an inactive Norfolk
& Southern Railroad track to get to the business park. It ends at First
Avenue and Moore Road.
“The fourth route runs along Route 202 to the mall down
the center of Route 202 on an elevated viaduct for two rail lines, loops around
the mall and uses North Gulph Road to reach First Avenue.”
Smith said that two years ago SEPTA engineers assumed
that most of the 16 proposed routes being considered would be elevated. The
elevated concrete rail sections would be 35 feet wide and about 25 feet off the
ground. A third rail would provide power for the commuter rail cars and
stations would be elevated also.
“A decision to allow limited ‘at grade’ sections was made
in spring 2014,” Smith said. “We determined that very few areas could be at
grade.”
Information on the project is at
www.kingofprussiarail.com.
Source: Times
Herald
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