I-95 dig offers a peek into 18th-century life

By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer

June 16, 2009 - Rich Remer mined his family's Kensington past for a quarter-century.

He found deeds, wills, letters, newspaper clippings, maps, diaries. The material took him to the first Remer in the colonies, a German butcher who lived on Shackamaxon Street by the Delaware River in the mid-1700s. (Read the rest of the Inquirer article.)

Wall provides link to canal's past

By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer

December 22, 2008 -- The watery tomb held its secret for more than a century.

And it would have stayed that way if not for plans to build a new Girard Avenue ramp off I-95 in Kensington. (Read the rest of the Inquirer article.)

I-95/GIR
Environmental and Historical Evaluation

Environmental
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), requires that all federally funded highway projects undergo an environmental review to identify potential impacts. Environmental reviews are conducted at three levels: an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the most detailed level of study; an Environmental Assessment (EA), a mid-range level of study; and a Categorical Exclusion (CE), a level of study conducted when the FHWA has determined that a project will not have significant environmental impacts. The FHWA has determined that this project may proceed as a CE.

The FHWA defines a CE as an appropriate level of review for "actions which: do not induce significant impacts to planned growth or land use for the area; do not require the relocation of significant numbers of people; do not have a significant impact on any natural, cultural, recreational, historic or other resource; do not involve significant air, noise, or water quality impacts; do not have significant impacts on travel patterns; or do not otherwise, either individually or cumulatively, have any significant environmental impacts."

Some of the activities included in the environmental review process are:

• Identification and evaluation of impacts to historic structures and properties
• Exploration of project area to determine the presence of historic and pre-contact archaeological resources
• Identification and possible mitigation of hazardous material sites
• Evaluation of potential impacts to parkland and recreational areas
• Identification and possible protection of threatened and endangered species in the project area
• Identification and minimization of negative impacts to air, noise, and water quality in the project area and surrounding neighborhoods
   

Historical
Section 4(f) Evaluation
The Section 4(f) Evaluation will identify proposed impacts to Section 4(f) resources in the project area. Section 4(f) refers to a piece of legislation of the United States Department of Transportation Act of 1966 (49 U.S.C. 303) and Section 138 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968, which states the following:

"the Secretary shall not approve any program or project which requires the use of any publicly owned land from a public park, recreation area, wildlife and waterfowl refuge of national, State, local significance as determined by the Federal, State or local officials having jurisdiction thereof, or any land from an historic site of national, State or local significance as so determined by such officials unless: (1) there is no feasible and prudent alternative to the use of such land, and (2) such program includes all possible planning to minimize harm to such park, recreation area, wildlife and waterfowl refuge, or historic site resulting from such use".

To date, the evaluation has identified the following eleven (11) Section 4(f) resources in the project area and their applicability to Section 4(f).

• Race Street Pumping Station (Eligible Historic Resource)
• Old City Historic District (National Register of Historic Places)
• Benjamin Franklin Bridge (Eligible Historic Resource)
• Northern Liberties Market Historic District (Eligible Historic Resource)
• Fishtown Historic District (Eligible Historic Resource)
• Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church (Eligible Historic Resource)
• Kensington Soup House (Eligible Historic Resource)
• Kensington Methodist Episcopal Church (Eligible Historic Resource)
• George Chandler School (National Register of Historic Places)
• Tip Top Playground (Public Recreation Site)
• Penn Treaty Park (Public Park and Eligible Historic Resource)

The draft Section 4(f) Evaluation will assess potential impacts to these resources. Once this document is approved, the results will be presented on this website.

Noise Analysis
The Preliminary Engineering Noise Analysis Report identified several locations along the project for proposed noise abatement, in the form of noise walls. During Final Design, the details of the noise wall locations, lengths, heights and costs will be coordinated with the other engineering designs to insure compatibility and the most cost effective and efficient noise wall design. In general, PennDOT is committed to the construction of feasible and reasonable noise abatement measures contingent on the following conditions:

• Detailed noise analyses during the Final Design process
• Analysis and determination of the feasibility and reasonableness of noise abatement measures, methodology, and criteria
• Community input regarding desires, types, heights, and locations, as well as aesthetic considerations
• Preferences regarding compatibility with adjacent land uses (such as churches), particularly as addressed by officials having jurisdiction over such land uses
• Safety and engineering aspects as related to the roadway user and adjacent property owner(s)