Published: November 20, 2009 11:25 pm      

Push continues for North/South Appalachian Highway

CUMBERLAND — Representatives from three states made their plea in the nation’s capital to highlight the benefits of an improved North/South Appalachian Highway.

Colleen Peterson, executive director of The Greater Cumberland Committee, led an eight-person contingent Wednesday and met with Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey and transportation committee staff members from Sens. Arlen Specter, Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin of Maryland. The focus of Wednesday’s meetings centered on the restoration of toll credits in the 2010 federal transportation bill.

Pennsylvania lacks the ability to use toll credits to offset the required state match of 20 percent in order to access the federal government’s 80 percent share, said David Moe, TGCC member. The toll credits include revenue from toll receipts, concession sales, right of way leases or interest, and borrowed funds supported by this revenue stream, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Along with Peterson, Moe was joined on the trip by Kolin Jan, president, Allegany County Chamber of Commerce; Keith Funkhouser, ATK; Wayne Spiggle, Mineral County commissioner; Mona Ridder, executive director, Mineral County Development Authority; Henry Cook, president, Somerset Trust Co.; and Somerset County Commissioner John Vatavuk.

The toll credits are key, Moe said, because without them, the improvements to U.S. Route 219 are on hold. Maryland has its share ready. Legislation in 2005 included a modification to the toll credit language specifically prohibiting the state’s use of toll credits for such projects. That legislation reversed a practice used since 1991.

“Restoring use of toll credits as state match for ... federal highway corridors will allow this critical project to move forward,” read literature distributed in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Route 219 project consists of six miles from the Maryland line to Meyersdale, Pa. The Meyersdale bypass to Somerset is another 11 miles and the final two miles are from U.S. 219 to Interstate 68. If funding were in placing, the project design could be completed in 2010 and construction could start in 2013.

The U.S. Route 220 project, which would connect Corridor H in West Virginia to I-68 in Cumberland, has a longer road to completion. Public hearings on the draft environmental impact study aren’t to begin until 2011 and the final report won’t be ready until 2013. Final design is not expected until 2015, according to a timeline shared Wednesday. Construction could begin in 2019.

But now is the time to put the project forward, Peterson said. All of the counties affected by the highway corridor have “historically suffered from poverty, reduced educational attainment, population declines and lower-than-national average per-capita incomes,” promotional material read.

According to a 2001 feasibility study, the North/South Appalachian Highway is expected to create 10,000 permanent jobs and 20,000 construction jobs.

Peterson said the broad coalition of partners represented in the traveling group showed those with the ears of the decision-makers that “we are serious” and that “we are as smart as they are in terms of this project.”

“I’m more committed than ever” to seeing the project through, Peterson said.

Peterson said each meeting ended with the same farewell indicative of a long-term effort.

“We’ll see you again,” Peterson said.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.