The Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, which serves as the Metropolitan Planning Organization for Carbon, Schuylkill, Monroe and Pike counties, is seeking comments on its draft long-range transportation plan.
The plan identifies major transportation projects, programs and policies needed for the next 25 years and establishes the vision and goals affecting transportation facilities, infrastructure and services in the region.
The draft plan also includes an updated air quality conformity analysis report, which reflects Clean Air Act compliance of the transportation projects in the Carbon County portion of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton nonattainment area.
One of the plan’s goals is to maintain existing infrastructure with the majority of funding in 2027 to 2040 being reserved for asset management of bridges and roads. Targeted intersection improvement are included and priority corridors, such as Route 209, Route 611 and Route 309.
Two such projects included in the long-range plan are traffic and safety improvements at Route 61 and Route 209 in Pottsville, and congestion on Route 309 in Tamaqua.
Two other projects are coming in 2017. They are the reconstruction of Route 309 from Route 54 in Rush Township to Kline Township in Schuylkill County and the Route 209 Interchange Road project in Lehighton in Carbon County.
The plan also explores trends in highways and bridges, population, job growth, commuters and safety.
More than half of the state roads in the NEPA MPO fall into the fair to poor category, the plan said, while 22 percent, or 228, of the state bridges and 48 percent, or 136, of the local bridges are structurally deficient. A long-range goal is to reduce the percent of structurally deficient bridges, the plan said.
The Pennsylvania State Data Center projects moderate increases in population through 2040 with Monroe and Schuylkill counties seeing increase and Carbon and Pike seeing slight declines.
As for job growth, all four counties show declines in the manufacturing sector, while Pike County saw an increase in retail establishments from 2002 to 2012. All four counties saw a growth in the healthcare sector with increases in the number of establishments and employees. Healthcare was also the leading employer in all four counties.
Most people live and work within their county boundaries, but a few have out-of-state commutes. In Pike County, approximately the same number — 40 percent — work out-of-state as those work within the county.
A copy of the draft plan can be viewed on the NEPA MPO website at www.nepa-alliance.org/ transportation. Paper copies can be requested by calling 570-655-5581 or writing to NEPA MPO at 1151 Oak St., Pittston, PA 18640. The 30-day public comment period ends Feb. 19.
Public meetings on the plan will be held: 8:30 a.m. Feb. 17 at Monroe County Administration Center, Stroudsburg, 3 p.m. Feb. 17 at Schuylkill County Courthouse, Pottsville, and 1 p.m. Feb. 18 at Pike County Administration Building, Milford.