Improving The Odds At The Interchange

SANATOGA PA – A deepening national recession, one that President-Elect Barack Obama warned Sunday (Dec. 7, 2008) would “get worse” before it got better, ironically may end up being a boon to Lower Pottsgrove Township’s economic development plans.

To lift the country out of its financial crisis, Obama and his advisers are crafting what The Washington Post describes as “the largest public works program since President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the federal interstate system in the 1950s.” The massive government spending program, which could begin soon after Obama’s inauguration, focuses on efforts to rebuild the nation’s highways.

Like, possibly, the township’s portion of U.S. Route 422.

• View a 4:54 video, above, of President-Elect Obama’s radio address Saturday (Dec. 6, 2008), in which he announces his public works proposal. Press play.

Outlets were just the start of something big.

The Sanatoga interchange of 422, the four-lane limited-access highway between King of Prussia and Reading PA, opened in 1985. The surrounding area since has seen gradual and then explosive commercial development, particularly with the arrival in November 2007 of the Philadelphia Premium Outlets in Limerick Township on the interchange’s south side.

More growth is foreseen, as soon as next summer, with creation of the Sanatoga Springs shopping complex nearby.

Also in the pipeline, or under discussion, are developments near or at the interchange on properties all or partially within Lower Pottsgrove. They include new or expanded assisted living facilities, a large age-restricted residential retirement community, another shopping center (or two), and a hotel.

Township officials worry such development and its accompanying traffic threatens to clog the interchange and make some feeder roads impassable.

A future vision of the Sanatoga Interchange Gateway, from the Simone Collins study.

Limerick and Lower Pottsgrove officials have talked of the need for up to $25 million to renovate 422’s on-and-off ramps, install an abundance of traffic controls, and create additional highway infrastructure to support the expected growth. Neither township nor the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has that kind of money handy.

What Lower Pottsgrove and PennDOT do have, however, are plans that – with some updating and alteration – might be put into action within only months. Fast turn-around, Obama’s inner circle hints, is a key factor in deciding which municipalities win a portion of the economic recovery money seemingly soon to come. States must “quickly invest in road and bridge construction and repair or lose the federal dollars,” The Washington Post reported.

Lower Pottsgrove already knows what its needs and hopes for at the interchange, thanks to an extensive Sanatoga Interchange Gateway Study created for the township by consultants Simone Collins in March 2006. That study has been a driving force behind proposed re-zoning and creation of Gateway Interchange and Gateway Mixed-Use districts the township Board of Commissioners wants to implement in the first quarter of 2009.

Traffic Planning and Design, left, and Bursich Associates' offices.

The township also benefits from long-standing professional relationships with its engineers of record, Bursich Associates, and with nationally recognized transportation engineering firm Traffic Planning and Design Inc. (TPD). Both are headquartered in Lower Pottsgrove, and TPD was primary designer of traffic improvements built for the outlet center. Commissioners could rapidly tap either or both for guidance.

Moreover, PennDOT long ago designed what Township Manager Rodney Hawthorne fondly recalls as a “beautiful cloverleaf interchange” for 422 at Sanatoga. Ultimately, it was scrapped for the less expensive existing ramp system that increasingly appears to be inadequate. It’s unknown how extensively or how fast those drawings could be re-worked – if at all – to meet an Obama administration time line.

A second unknown: how Lower Pottsgrove would fare in competition with other municipalities – including Limerick – in what are sure to be funding fights at both state and federal levels. PennDOT certainly has its own set of priorities for whatever money comes Pennsylvania’s way. And Limerick earlier this year hired a lobbying firm, Delta Development Group Inc., to bring in money for 422 improvements from federal sources. It’s paying a minimum of $240,000 for Delta’s expertise and results.

Lower Pottsgrove interviewed Delta representatives too, in September, but passed on hiring them. Commissioners deemed the firm too pricey.

At the time, their decision appeared to be a calculated risk. Because both municipalities are heavily affected by what happens at the interchange, they reasoned the township’s congressman, Charlie Dent (Rep., PA 15th Dist.), would ensure Lower Pottsgrove got its fair share of whatever (if anything) Limerick receives.

There’s no telling, yet, if board members made a smart bet. But with far more federal money now expected to be available than what was anticipated only months earlier, and with the right pieces of its project pending or in place, Lower Pottsgrove’s odds of enhancing the Sanatoga interchange of 422 may already be on the rise.

Video by Change.gov from YouTube.
Simone Collins plan image from Lower Pottsgrove Township.

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