PA: SEDA-COG holds listening session for transportation projects in Valley

The fourth and final listening session for SEDA-Council of Government's Long Range Transportation Plan was held on Friday afternoon in East Buffalo Township.

Public input received at these meetings will help guide the final plan recommendations and advance future transportation projects and initiatives aimed at improving safety and connectivity for the SEDA-COG Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) region of Clinton, Columbia, Juniata, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties. The public forum was held at the township building, 589 Fairground Road, Lewisburg.

"The final plan will include a profile of existing conditions, which will include roadways and bridges, public transit, bike paths, and aviation," Project Manager Brian Funkhouser, of Michael Baker International, said as he led the session on Friday. "There will be a revenue forecast with the financial aspects. There will be a series of action items. The final big piece is the list of projects. The project will be financially constrained and another list of projects that are not financially contained."

The Long-Range Transportation Plan examines transportation needs over a 25-year planning horizon using a continuous, comprehensive, and cooperative planning process. Plans like this one ensure that Metropolitan Planning Organizations evaluate transportation system needs and projects that align with regional goals, as well as a variety of federal and state requirements. Plans are updated at least every five years.

Funkhouser said 352 people responded to a transportation survey. They responded that their transportation priorities were safety, active transportation, transit/other multi-modal methods and economic development.

The survey "provided a good starting point" for staff to coordinate with PennDOT on projects, Funkhouser said.

The plan will include background information for eight counties, eight urban areas, 177 municipalities and two PennDOT districts. This is a 3,400-square mile area with more than 6,700 linear miles of roadway, 2,200 state bridges, 10.2 million daily vehicle miles of traffic, four transit agencies, more than 390 miles of railway tracks, nine public use airports and 143 miles of bicycle routes.

Many suggestions were made on specific areas of the eight-county region. One of those suggestions came from Lewisburg Borough Manager William Lowthert about constructing a crossing over Route 15 of the Buffalo Valley Rail Trail.

"A lot of people bike and walk from the borough to get to that shopping complex ( Penn House Commons)," Lowthert said.

It is a top transportation need, Lewisburg Neighborhoods Program Director Debra Sulai said.

Lewisburg Mayor Kendy Alvarez suggested rehabilitating the old railroad bridge near Soldiers Park in Lewisburg and using it to extend the rail trail into Northumberland County. The Union County Trail Authority and Lewisburg Neighborhoods in 2023 rehabilitated the bridge abutment

Funkhouser said the next step is additional data collection, interviews with stakeholders and creating a summary of the comments received during the listening session.

PennDOT will conduct its own survey in the spring.

Other listening sessions were held in Lock Haven, Elysburg and Lewistown.

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