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PennDot urged to keep Rte. 41 plan
March 29, 2004
Nancy Petersen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Philadelphia Inquirer

The announcement by state transportation officials that they are reevaluating the controversial Route 41 project in southern Chester County has all sides saying one thing to PennDot: Don't walk away.

"I hope they don't sideline it," said Rikki Saunders, a founder of a group called S.A.V.E. that is promoting a two-lane alternative for the road. "We need to do something about safety — they just have to address that."

S.A.V.E., which stands for Safety Agriculture Villages Environment, was formed to protest the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's plans for widening the busy road to a limited access four-lane highway with bypasses around Avondale and Chatham.

Linda Ingathron, who represents the Southern Chester County Organization on Transportation (SCCOOT), said that physically, the road is in terrible shape.

"Something needs to be done," she said. "I don't believe the governor or PennDot will walk away and leave the road the way it is."

On Thursday, state Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler announced that PennDot, amid growing concerns about steep costs and impacts on land use, was deferring 14 projects across the state valued at $3 billion and reevaluating 12 others worth $2 billion, including Route 41.

Andrew Warren, PennDot administrator for District 6, said on Friday that the reevaluation process is just that — and should not signal to anybody that the Route 41 project is dead.

Warren said that for the last four or five months, district staff has been evaluating projects and alternatives around the region, including S.A.V.E.'s proposal for Route 41.

"I believe it is a reassessment of the issue," said Warren. "It is not gamesmanship, or word games or semantics."

PennDot has been working for at least 20 years on Route 41, a 22-mile road that is not only being burdened by growing commuter traffic, but which has also become the fastest and cheapest route for truck traffic traveling between the Port of Wilmington and markets in the Midwest.

But the agency's ambitious proposals for a four-lane limited access highway for the road's southern half between the Delaware state line and Route 926 alarmed environmentalists, farmers and preservationists who feared it would trigger a wave of sprawl through some of the East Coast's richest farmland.

S.A.V.E.'s proposal for a two-lane alternative features methods the organization says will meet traffic needs, increase safety and eliminate the need to condemn farmland. It includes a modern version of traffic circles called roundabouts, and speed humps to slow traffic down through the villages.

The group has also called for a ban on through trucks and for more police to stop speeders and enforce weight limits on trucks. It says its proposal can be done faster and significantly cheaper than any of PennDot's four-lane alternatives.

PennDot has convened a citizens advisory council to study all the alternatives, and, under Gov. Rendell, a select group of representatives from S.A.V.E. and SCCOOT have been meeting with representatives from Biehler's office for nearly a year to try to reach a consensus on how best to move forward.

Ingathron said she is not opposed to S.A.V.E.'s alternatives — she just questions whether Route 41 is the right place for roundabouts and speed humps.

"But whatever solution the experts come up with, fine," she said.

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Contact staff writer Nancy Petersen at 610-701-7602 or npetersen@phillynews.com.