PennDOT has met with representatives from the Our Lady of Grace Cemetery and was told they prefer to retain access to the entrance along the existing service road.  The existing service road in front of the cemetery is currently proposed to be converted to a two-way driveway to facilitate ingress and egress to their main entrance.

Improvements to East Highland Avenue are not currently part of this project.

Thank you for your input.  PennDOT works to reduce impacts to adjacent properties to the extent possible and must have engineering justification to acquire property.

A detailed noise study is being completed for the project. If warranted, reasonable and feasible in accordance with PennDOT Publication 24, noise walls will be proposed as part of this project.  In areas where noise walls are proposed, the local impacted property owners will have a vote on whether to accept the noise wall.  A simple majority will determine whether the potential proposed noise wall will be incorporated into the project.

The preferred alternative removes the portion of the service road parallel to North Street.  This area will be used for stormwater conveyance in the build condition along with a potential multi-use trail.

Access to US 1 from the Fox Court area will be via the proposed interchange at Highland Avenue.

As the project is still in the initial Environmental Assessment phase of development, property impacts have not been determined at this time and are subject to change.  If your property (or a portion of your property) is needed for the project, a PennDOT representative will contact you once plans have been prepared for the Acquisition of Right-of-Way in the final design phase of the project.  At this time, Right-of-Way Acquisition is not anticipated to begin until late 2026 / early 2027. 

A detailed noise study is being completed for the project. If warranted, reasonable and feasible in accordance with PennDOT Publication 24, noise walls will be proposed as part of this project.  In areas where noise walls are proposed, the local impacted property owners will have a vote on whether to accept the noise wall.  A simple majority will determine whether the potential proposed noise wall will be incorporated into the project.

Pine Street is expected to have a relatively minor 4% traffic increase (85 additional vehicles out of 1330 total vehicles) south of Flowers Avenue in the PM Peak versus the existing condition. PA 413 / Pine Street is a State-owned principal arterial that provides traffic movement through the region between Penndel and Newtown in the existing condition. 

The proposed project will not change this travel pattern.  An interchange at West Interchange Road will completely disrupt travel patterns in the area and put undue stress on roads as traffic would move from the West Interchange Road area to PA 413 to head to Newtown or Penndel. 

The proposed design includes bicycle and pedestrian accommodations not currently present along PA 413 to connect Langhorne Manor and Langhorne and connects areas with sidewalks and a sidepath to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.  Additionally, PennDOT is coordinating with Langhorne Borough to include traffic calming and pedestrian safety improvements from the Flowers Avenue intersection north to the PA 213 (Maple Avenue) intersection.

PennDOT will be actively coordinating with SEPTA to accommodate relocating the bus stops along the widened roadway and to potentially provide concrete pads for future bus shelters.

PennDOT is actively coordinating with the municipalities regarding traffic calming opportunities.  Please note that while sidewalks would be installed as part of a PennDOT project, maintenance of the sidewalks would be municipal responsibility and typically municipalities pass maintenance responsibilities on to the adjacent property owners.

It is anticipated that traffic will be split between the proposed southern and proposed northern interchanges depending on where they are coming from and where they are heading in Penndel.  It is anticipated that the traffic would split between the two interchanges to use either the Hulmeville Road underpass or the Hulmeville Road overpass to get to Business Route 1 if they anticipate their travel conflicting with trains at the Pine Street at-grade crossing.  It is anticipated that neither of these alternative routes would be a significant increase over their existing usage. 

JMT completed an origin-destination analysis to determine how many vehicles would be expected to take the proposed SR 413 interchange. It is anticipated that 255 vehicles would take the northbound interchange ramp to exit US 1, and 355 vehicles would take the southbound interchange ramp to exit Route 1 during the PM Peak hour. These volumes are similar to the volumes that the existing slip ramps near Bellevue Avenue currently experience.

The PA 413 (Pine Street) interchange has a rendering as can be seen in the color roll plot on the project website.  Roundabouts were investigated for the interchange; however, single lane roundabouts caused traffic backups onto US 1 and two-lane roundabouts would have required more property acquisition and would not have performed any better than traffic signals from a safety standpoint.  As noted, traffic signals require less property acquisition than a two-lane roundabout and do not require any additional total property acquisitions. 

PennDOT is currently coordinating with Langhorne Borough to determine the traffic calming option to be included with the project.  As such, details such as median treatments have yet to be determined but will be coordinated with the Borough when appropriate. 

The preferred alternative removes the portion of the service road parallel to North Street.  This area will be used for stormwater conveyance in the build condition along with a potential multi-use trail.  A traffic noise study is being completed for the project in accordance with PennDOT’s Publication 24: Project Level Highway Traffic Noise Handbook. If warranted, feasible, and reasonable, noise walls will be proposed as part of this project. In areas where noise walls are proposed, the benefited members of the community will have a vote on whether to accept the noise wall.  A simple majority will determine whether a potential proposed noise wall will be incorporated into the project. PennDOT will need to consider whether a transparent noise wall may be included as an option prior to the property owner vote.  Similar transparent noise walls typically require more maintenance cost and can pose issues for birds.

The virtual public meeting occurred on 4/23/2025 from 7pm to 10pm and was attended by 168 individuals.  A pdf of the presentation and a recording of the presentation have been uploaded to the project website.  Visuals of the current preferred alternative are posted to the project website and are up-to-date.  Additional information will be posted as the Environmental Assessment (EA) process continues culminating in the publication of the EA document later this year.

The recording of the presentation along with the presentation slides have been posted to the project website.  The public who were unable to access the live presentation can watch the recording to learn about the Section 4(f) resources.

The preferred alternative removes portions of the service road parallel to North Street. This area will be used for stormwater conveyance and management in the build consition along with a potential multi-use trail.

A previous alternative limited to providing a full width paved outside shoulder and concrete barriers along with closing the intermediate crossovers was strongly opposed by residents living along the service roads. 

As clearly stated in the presentation (please see the recording posted to the project website for reference), the design team noted multiple fatalities along US 1 within the project corridor.  In accordance with FHWA’s Vision Zero, any fatality is too many fatalities.

In addition, records show 588 crashes along US 1 within the project corridor over the past 6 years.  Based on the safety analysis, the preferred alternative is anticipated to reduce crashes within the project corridor when compared to the future no build condition and when compared to other alternatives.

The Department notes that any potential traffic calming and pedestrian improvements will be within the existing curblines or within the existing sidewalk limits at the proposed ADA ramp locations.  Consequently, the project does not and will not directly impact the Bethlehem AME Church or other properties within Langhorne Borough Historic District.  PennDOT does take note of the potential indirect effects to the Bethlehem AME Church and Langhorne Borough and is taking these into consideration as the project development process continues through the Section 106 process.

PennDOT understands and appreciates the concerns expressed regarding pedestrian safety at the PA 413/Flowers Avenue and PA 413/PA 213 intersections along with the concern at the associated pedestrian attractions. 

As previously noted, PennDOT is currently coordinating with Langhorne Borough regarding traffic calming and pedestrian improvements along PA 413 (Pine Street) from the Flowers Avenue intersection north to the PA 213 (Maple Avenue) intersection. 

PennDOT is actively coordinating with Wood Services regarding their campus and residents’ needs with respect to pedestrian and bicycle needs / accommodations along with transit access for staff.

PennDOT has corresponded and met directly with the Bethlehem AME Church to hear its concerns and will continue to meet with any stakeholder (including Woods Services) throughout the design process. PennDOT will address project stakeholder concerns as much as possible within the limits of this project.

Based on the traffic analysis, the Department does not anticipate a significant increase in traffic volume at either the PA 413/Flowers Avenue intersection or the PA 413/PA 213 intersection due to the proposed interchange. The Department notes that vehicles can currently exit onto Bellevue Avenue from both U.S. 1 North and South, which creates a cut-through traffic pattern on the neighborhood (local) street network. While the proposed interchange will make it easier and safer to reach PA 413, the project team anticipates traffic will only rebalance from the internal cut-through traffic and from the U.S. 1/PA 213 Interchange. Again, a significant increase in traffic volume will not be seen at the PA 413/PA 213 intersection or the PA 413/Flowers Avenue intersection in Langhorne Borough due to the proposed interchange.

A traffic noise study is being completed for the project in accordance with PennDOT’s Publication 24: Project Level Highway Traffic Noise Handbook. If warranted, feasible, and reasonable, noise walls will be proposed as part of this project. In areas where noise walls are proposed, the benefited members of the community will have a vote on whether to accept the noise wall.  A simple majority will determine whether a potential proposed noise wall will be incorporated into the project.

PennDOT is currently coordinating with Langhorne Borough regarding traffic calming and pedestrian improvements along PA 413 (Pine Street) from the Flowers Avenue intersection north to the PA 213 (Maple Avenue) intersection.  PennDOT is actively coordinating with Wood Services regarding their campus and residents’ needs with respect to pedestrian and bicycle needs / accommodations along with transit access for staff.

The queueing condition was modeled for the no build and build conditions and it was found that queueing in the PM Peak on PA 413 northbound will decrease, on PA 413 southbound will increase, and on PA 213 it will increase in the build condition due to updated timing and new traffic patterns. The overall intersection traffic volumes and queueing will be similar in the no build and build condition, with no major impacts as a result of the US 1 project.

PennDOT’s traffic count data from February 2024 showed 8 heavy trucks and 104 buses/single unit trucks (or 112 total trucks/buses) in the morning peak hour and 6 heavy trucks and 49 buses/single unit trucks (or 55 total trucks/buses) in the afternoon peak hour.

PennDOT’s online traffic count data from 2024 indicates 3% truck traffic and 511 total trucks and buses per day along PA 413 (Pine Street) north of the intersection and 12% trucks and 1522 total trucks and buses per day along PA 413 (Pine Street) south of the intersection. 

The traffic data from 2024 stated above, which is similar to previous counts, is the traffic data currently being used in the project traffic analysis.  At no point in time during the project’s traffic analysis were the truck numbers referenced by Langhorne Borough used to evaluate any proposed alternatives.

An air quality analysis is being completed for the project to address National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Clean Air Act requirements. The study follows the guidelines provided in PennDOT’s Publication 321: Project-Level Air Quality Handbook. The Handbook provides background information and technical guidance on applicable regulations, standards, and evaluation processes that are required to be considered for projects like this one.

The traffic study will be made available to the public at the time of the Environmental Assessment document publication or sooner, when available.  Previous versions of the traffic analysis were reviewed by third party engineers.  The study was also provided to SAFE Engineering for their review and comment; however, PennDOT did not receive any comments regarding the traffic analysis. 

PennDOT has requested Langhorne Borough to provide any traffic analysis completed by their engineers that may contradict their findings.  To date, no independent traffic analysis has been received.  Any safety analysis received from Langhorne Borough’s engineers has been found to have a lower reduction in crashes when compared to the current preferred alternative.

The PM Peak at the SR 213 (Maple Avenue) and SR 413 (Pine Street) is modeled to be approximately 1 second longer in intersection delay (31.0 seconds in the no build condition versus 32.5 in the build condition) for the overall intersection. Some approaches will experience less delay while others will experience slightly more due to changes in traffic patterns and optimizing signal timings and coordinating with adjacent signals, but the operations at the intersection as a whole are not expected to be majorly impacted versus the existing condition.

The proposed interchanges (one at Highland Avenue and one at PA 413) are necessary to retain access to the adjacent residential areas and Neshaminy High School in the southern portion of the project corridor and the residential areas and the State-owned roadways (PA 413 and PA 213) in the northern portion of the project corridor.  In the proposed condition, the service roads will no longer provide access between US 1 and the adjacent side street network.  In the existing configuration, the service roads in conjunction with Bellevue Avenue act as a de facto interchange. 

From US 1 SB, traffic proceeds along Bellevue northward into Langhorne Borough onto PA 213 (Maple Avenue) or from Gillam Avenue onto PA 413 (Pine Street) to continue northward to Newtown.  In the proposed condition, this same traffic will exit via the proposed interchange onto PA 413 (Pine Street) and then proceed northward through the Borough to get to Newtown.  Those exiting US 1 in the existing conditions at both the current PA 413 (Pine Street) de facto interchange and at the PA 213 (Maple Avenue) interchange proceeding toward Langhorne Borough either have destinations in Langhorne or Langhorne Manor Boroughs or are proceeding through to Newtown Borough based on origin-destination studies performed by the design team. 

This will not change with the formalization of the PA 413 (Pine Street) interchange.  The additional lanes along PA 413 (Pine Street) are only necessary in the future and are only to accommodate queuing within the interchange itself.  The additional lanes are unrelated to traffic volumes along PA 413 (Pine Street) outside of the limits of the interchange ramps.  Therefore, no additional lanes are being proposed north of the proposed ramp intersections except to merge traffic back down to one lane south of the Flowers Avenue intersection.  The project proposes traffic calming and pedestrian crossing improvements from the Flowers Avenue intersection north to the PA 213 (Maple Avenue) intersection along PA 413 (Pine Street) to improve pedestrian safety.

The area adjacent to Our Lady of Grace Cemetery is currently being used by J.D. Eckman, Inc. (the contractor advancing the construction of the S.R. 0001, Section RC2 project in Bensalem and Middletown Townships).  J.D. Eckman and the property owner entered into a private lease agreement for use of the property. PennDOT is not a party to the agreement.  PennDOT does not know whether the parties will continue (or discontinue) their lease agreement beyond the completion of the S.R. 0001, Section RC2 project.  Concerns about the lot should be directed to the property owner and/or municipality.

PennDOT has held multiple public meetings and continues to meet with elected public officials to provide updates and obtain feedback regarding the proposed project and improvements.  Additionally, PennDOT maintains a project website with displays showing the current preferred alternative along with an extensive FAQ section, a recording of the April 2025 virtual public meeting, and a contact form.  PennDOT will be updating the project website as the Environmental Assessment (EA) process continues. This will include updates notifying the public of opportunities to comment on the EA document and the anticipated public hearing.  PennDOT will conduct additional public outreach to present new or updated information upon request or as otherwise determined appropriate.