LV Long-Range Transportation Plan approved; chairman lone dissenter

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The Lehigh Valley Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) to invest $4.3 billion on infrastructure to support growth over the next 25 years was overwhelmingly approved by the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study (LVTS) recently. 

However, LVTS Chairman and Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure is not thrilled. 

“Right now, the development pressure is tilted toward Northampton County but the focus on infrastructure improvements is still on Lehigh County,” McClure, who cast the only dissenting vote, said. “We need to have infrastructure spending on the whole valley.” 

The current plan, which is not a budget, but a roadmap for how the region will maintain and improve its transportation network, covers nearly 500 road, bridge, trails, transit and community projects. It is based primarily on the federal and state transportation funding that’s projected to flow into the Lehigh Valley through 2050, according to LRTP. 

McClure said the funding is not equitable for Northampton County and won’t be until 2049 with the plan.  

“Growth is happening and with no infrastructure improvements, there will be gridlock, which will negatively affect businesses and our citizens,” McClure said. 

He cited the intersection of routes 191 and 22, which he said has the highest rate of crashes and is the deadliest intersection in the Lehigh Valley.  

“There is a great deal of community pressure because of the warehouses abutting 22, which is not designed for truck traffic,” he said. “It needs to be fixed now.” 

McClure said that while that project is on the long-range plan, Airport Road is not and has needed to be addressed for five years. 

“The airport is an important driver of our economy,” he said. 

The LRTP now goes before the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration for review. If passed by those agencies, it goes into effect in 2024.  

That investment is a 70% increase over the money projected for this region when the LRTP was last updated in 2019, as the transportation portion of FutureLV: The Regional Plan. 

The big jump in projected money can be attributed to passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a renewed commitment to repairing the nation’s aging transportation network and an effort by state and federals officials to funnel more money into one of Pennsylvania’s fastest-growing regions, LRTP said. 

However, that regional funding is also supplemented by $525.6 million in state and federal grant money, and funding specifically targeted for the interstate system.  

That brings the total money projected to flow into the Lehigh Valley by 2050 to nearly $4.9 billion.  

“This looks out 25 years to how we can invest in everything from our road and bridge network to our walking, biking and the transit system,” said Becky Bradley, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, which serves as a planning staff for the LVTS. “This is a marked increase in investment over our previous LRTP just four years ago, showing the power of the IIJA. It’s opened additional resources at a critical time in the Lehigh Valley’s growth.”  

The revised LRTP, the project list with costs and timeframes, a geographic information systems map and all the public comments made can be found at lvpc.org/transportation-plans. 

“Theoretically, this is just a plan,” McClure said. “The Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) is where the money is awarded. If there is enough support, we can get money moved, but that is a difficult process.” 

McClure said he has called on the Northampton County legislators to help but said that the projects are ultimately decided by PennDOT, which has the money and expertise.  

“LTVS is supposed to control the money, but it is really a façade,” he said.  

As chairman, McClure said, in reality, projects are already decided before they get to him. He is hoping the legislators can help but said “it’s a mighty lift for them.” 

“PennDOT has the power, and they should. Still, it is very difficult to get them to be responsive to the legislature and even the governor,” McClure said. “It’s a mighty bureaucracy.” 

While the money includes billions for big projects along major roadways such as Routes 22, 309, 33 and 100, and nearly 100 bridges, it also invests in smaller community projects in every corner of the region, including trail projects, streetscape renewals and traffic safety enhancements, LRTP said.  

It also directs more than $1.4 billion to fund the operation of the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) transit service.  

Despite the big jump in funding coming to the region, the plan also outlines nearly $2.3 billion in projects, titled “unmet needs”, that based on the current projection, cannot be funded.  

That could change for some of those unfunded projects if more money than expected comes in future years, or if federal or state grant money is identified. 

The next update of the LRTP will come in 2027 but work on the four-year TIP has already begun. Unlike the LRTP, which is a roadmap based on projections, the TIP is a budget and workplan for the next four years of projects listed in the LRTP. 

 A public comment period for the TIP is expected to begin in May 2024.