Thruway Project is Top Priority; Obstacles Remain

Once again, the SEDA-COG Rural Planning Organization has made the Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation (CSVT) project its top priority among transportation projects in the region.  The Rural Planning Organization (RPO) serves transportation planning needs in Clinton, Columbia, Juniata, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union counties.   

But according to Jim Saylor, Director of transportation planning at SEDA-COG, “Major obstacles remain before we can build the CSVT, and it’s more than just money ─ it’s the means in which those funds are secured.”

The proposed 12.5-mile roadway would address serious traffic safety and congestion concerns in and around Routes 11 and 15 in Shamokin Dam, and Route 147 in Northumberland.  The total estimated cost is $604 million, based on anticipated year-of-expenditure costs and including funds already expended.  The non-federal (state and local) share is approximately $120 million.   

Over a year ago the proposed roadway was added to the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS), qualifying the project for Appalachian Highway funds.  The addition was part of an exchange that removed 12.5 miles of another project from participating in the ADHS.  However, the amount of Appalachian Highway funding that can be used on CSVT is still limited, based on a cap applied to the original 12.5 miles.  

Saylor says the region’s Congressmen are exploring steps to remove or increase those limits but, as yet, those efforts have been unsuccessful.   

Another impediment toward securing funding is the Congressional ban on the use of toll credits to provide the project’s non-federal share.  In the past, highway maintenance funds secured through the collection of tolls could be applied as a credit toward the non-federal share of projects like CSVT.  “But about five years ago,” says Saylor, “Congress disallowed the use of toll credits within the Appalachian corridor.

Saylor commended Pennsylvania’s federal legislators who are seeking to have the ban overturned.  Senators Robert Casey and Pat Toomey are co-sponsors of legislation in the U.S. Senate that would lift the ban, and Congressman Bill Shuster has introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives.  Congressmen Tom Marino and Glenn Thompson are co-sponsors.   

At its final meeting of 2012, the SEDA-COG RPO adopted a resolution recognizing CSVT as the region’s top priority transportation project.  The resolution also addressed the issues of funding limits and the use of toll credits.  Copies of the resolution were forwarded to the region’s state and federal legislators.