Residents Mobilize Against PennDOT’s $150 Million Route 1 Project

A growing coalition of residents from Langhorne Borough and Langhorne Manor Borough are mounting their opposition to the planned $150 million third phase of PennDOT’s multiyear overhaul of Route 1.

Signs opposing the project dot properties throughout the two tree-lined boroughs and residents have packed community meetings.

The final phase of the Route 1 project, known by PennDOT as Section RC3, spans 2.7 miles of the highway in Lower Bucks County from the bridge over the CSX and SEPTA West Trenton Line to just north of the Corn Crib Lane overpass. It is the last stage of the improvement program intended to replace aging infrastructure and enhance safety along the busy Route 1 corridor.

The opposition group, which is calling itself the No Cloverleaf Coalition, contends PennDOT has failed to adequately address local concerns, dismissed a significantly cheaper alternative plan, and risks increasing traffic hazards on neighborhood streets.

PennDOT officials have said the project is still in the engineering stage, while calling the proposal as a necessary safety improvement.

“It is very important to everyone that we are still in preliminary engineering so changes are expected,” Sipti Hassan, PennDOT’s project manager, said at an October public meeting.

The current plans were introduced in April after years of work.

The plans call for eliminating most service roads along Route 1, constructing two new interchanges—including a partial cloverleaf at Pine Street (Route 413)—and replacing four bridges over the highway to spans with increased vertical clearance.

The plan maintains Route 1 as a four-lane divided highway.

The No Cloverleaf Coalition has been organizing and raising concerns about the RC3 project since 2020. They claim PennDOT has not sufficiently communicated with their municipalities and has acted unilaterally, particularly in the selection of the current design.

“PennDOT selected its current RC3 option at a closed-door meeting that excluded residents of all three municipalities as well as Langhorne Borough’s government leaders,” the coalition stated, referencing the three communities of Middletown Township, Langhorne Manor Borough, and Langhorne Borough.

The widespread nature of the opposition, particularly in Langhorne Borough, is unusual, according to incoming mayor and former council member Barry Truchil.

“I was council president for a dozen years. There’s never been an issue that you didn’t have divisions between commercial interests versus residential,” Truchil said. “I’ve never seen a universal consensus among people in town than this. Everyone sees this as a threat to the town, not just residents.”

Some Langhorne Borough officials have “consistently opposed” the plan based on environmental, safety, quality of life, and other factors, the coalition said.

The group noted that their opposition to the phase 3 improvements is mounting, citing two recent standing-room only public information sessions.

A main pillar of the coalition’s argument is that PennDOT has overlooked a less disruptive and more cost-effective alternative.

As part of the opposition, a traffic engineering firm was hired to develop a counter-proposal that would maintain existing service roads while making targeted safety improvements.

The group told LevittownNow.com they estimate their alternative would cost $80 million to $90 million less than PennDOT’s $150 million proposal while achieving better safety outcomes.

According to their analysis, the alternative would cost $80 million to $90 million less than PennDOT’s proposal while achieving better safety outcomes.

“We basically want to do a plan that makes more sense and saves money,” Smiley said. “We’ve produced an alternate plan that saves money and increases safety.”

Residents expressed frustration that PennDOT has shown little interest in their detailed alternative, even as they question the need for the proposed cloverleaf interchange, saying the need has never been adequately explained by PennDOT planners.

Smiley said he knows PennDOT needs to do something with Route 1, but he believes they need to keep working on their proposal.

“We want something better and that is safe,” he said.

A large portion of the residents’ anxiety stems from the plan’s intent to cut off most connections between Route 1 and local roads via the service roads.

The project’s goal is to enhance safety on the highway itself by addressing how the service roads interact with Route 1 at intermediate crossovers and concrete traffic islands, according to PennDOT officials.

Those opposed said the removal of the service roads would inevitably force local traffic onto existing residential streets, including Highland and Gilliam avenues.

The residents noted that PennDOT’s own data projects that the project will reduce accidents on Route 1 but increase them on side streets.

“PennDOT said it’s 29 percent more traffic during the morning hours, exactly when the kids are getting on the bus and walking to the bus,” said Carol Ann Aicher, a Langhorne Manor resident whose street would be directly affected. “And then 19 or 17 percent in the evenings, exactly when the kids are trying to get home.”

Aicher pointed out that the elimination of the service road will shift a higher volume of vehicles onto residential streets without sidewalks.

“There’s a dozen houses on the service road. Now you’re moving it and you’re doubling the, actually more tripling, quadrupling the amount of residents that are going to be on either side of that traffic now,” she said.

The residents worry this traffic shift will destroy the communities’ walkable character.

“We are walking towns,” Aicher said.

“Everybody’s on a bike and the kids in the summer and moms with strollers and getting to the park, they’re just. People are going to get killed,” said Betsy Carr, of Langhorne Borough.

Smiley said the boroughs are bikeable towns and the current plans will make things more dangerous for those on two wheels.

Another major concern is the potential impact of construction and increased traffic vibration on historic structures within the Langhorne Borough National Register Historic District.

The group specifically noted the Bethlehem African Methodist Episcopal Church on Pine Street (Route 413) in Langhorne Borough, which was built in 1803.

“The foundation is already crumbling already from existing traffic,” Truchil said.

The residents also question the accuracy of PennDOT’s traffic analysis, citing the rapid pace of development in the area.

“There’s been so much development since then and so much more proposed development,” Truchil said, noting several housing projects planned in the corridor.

In a recent virtual public meeting, residents said PennDOT officials made “preposterous claims” that the project would not increase traffic on local roads despite the addition of an interchange and the closure of service roads.

“You’re adding an interchange, closing off the service roads and look at the traffic study that documents the existing traffic where cars have to wait two lights to get through the intersection. And this isn’t going to change traffic patterns at all,” Truchel said.

While the communities have explored legal options, presented their alternatives, and raised their voices, PennDOT has received little other push back on the plan from surrounding municipalities, including Middletown Township.

Despite this, Aicher, who lives in Langhorne Manor Borough, said she has joined forces with Langhorne Borough residents because they share a common goal.

The coalition has gathered more than 1,000 handwritten signatures on a petition opposing the project, including support from residents in other communities who use the Route 1 corridor.

If PennDOT’s plans move forward and gets all final approvals, construction could begin on the RC3 project in fall 2029.

The current phase of the planning is pending the completion of an environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1965.

The agency has opened the environmental assessment for the project and is soliciting feedback through Friday, Jan. 2, both online and via mail to PennDOT Engineering District 6-0.

“We agree with proposals to make US 1 safer, but the community needs to have all of the facts around this project,” the coalition stated. “If PennDOT persists in building it as planned, all of us will be forced to live with the consequences forever.”

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