By Ed Hille

Oct. 07
By Alan Jaffe
For PlanPhilly

In the coming weeks, PlanPhilly will examine the infrastructure projects that would accompany a re-visioning of the Central Delaware waterfront - including those that already exist and those proposed by Penn Praxis - and how they will meet their biggest challenge: funding.

The Civic Vision for the Central Delaware calls for investments in a variety of infrastructure systems. A necklace of parks and green spaces would bloom along the seven-mile stretch, linked by an esplanade for strolling and biking. Interstate 95, the highway that blocks access to the river, would be rebuilt as a partial underground route in the Center City area, allowing for mixed-use development above it and the long-awaited completion of Penn’s Landing. An entire network of streets along the waterfront would create new neighborhoods and reconnect older communities to the river. Columbus Boulevard would be transformed from a traffic nightmare into a pedestrian-friendly, tree- and shop-lined urban boulevard, with light-rail or other mass-transit lanes. Praxis also foresees redevelopment of industrial sites to the north, including the old ship yards and rail lines. And one-pipe storm and wastewater systems that are in some sections 100-to-200 years old would need to be updated or replaced.

This overview story looks at the current climate for new infrastructure investments, and some of the challenges the proposed projects may face.

Another wake-up call

The collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, killing 13 people, drove the dangers of an aging bridge system into the American consciousness, at least temporarily. Federal, state and local governments have responded with investigations, inspections and reports on the declining condition of bridges around the country. 

But the nation’s infrastructure consists of more than the spans we cross. It includes all the roads we travel, the rail and transit lines, parks and other open space, and the utility lines, storm water and sewage systems beneath it all, which need regular monitoring and maintenance. The costs of repair or replacement account for a large portion of private sector and government budgets on every level and with millions being spent each day in Iraq and New Orleans still rebuilding after Katrina, that challenge is especially daunting.

The American Society of Civil Engineers issued its most recent Report Card for America’s Infrastructure in 2005 and found that there had been little or no improvement since it gave the nation a D+ in 2001, with some areas approaching failure. Bridges, surprisingly, received a C, the highest grade awarded in 2005. Roads, dams, drinking water, wastewater, hazardous waste, navigable waterways, aviation, public parks, and transit each received a D+ or worse. The report card said the nation required a five-year investment of $1.6 trillion to fix all that’s wrong.

At regional hearings of Pennsylvania’s State Transportation Commission on Aug. 16, chairman Allen D. Biehler said the commonwealth has a $40 billion budget for infrastructure projects, but the proposals from throughout the state seek three times that much. And in choosing “strategic investment,” the state prioritizes “maintenance, safety and operation first.”

So where does that leave grand new projects and proposals?

In November, Penn Praxis, the clinical arm of the University of Pennsylvania design school, will present city leaders and the public with its final vision for the redevelopment of the Delaware River waterfront. The plan covers 1,146 acres from Allegheny Avenue to Oregon Avenue, and includes the creation of a network of new or extended roads connecting the city to the river. Within that area are 463 acres of developable land and 314 acres of proposed parks, open space and the myriad infrastructure needs that are required by a project of that scope.

Other planners see funding as the major stumbling block to the Vision Plan, and the I-95 access and development proposal as the most unlikely scenario to be achieved. With the attention turned to existing bridges, they say the federal government is not in the mood to fund another enterprise that harkens back to Boston’s Big Dig, and even the less costly elements of the Vision Plan will have to compete with other projects for the limited resources at hand.

But to dismiss new projects because of current problems is “very short-sighted,” says Nando Micale, a senior associate at Wallace Roberts & Todd, the planning and design firm that is helping to draft the Penn Praxis vision.

“Planning by its nature is about looking toward the future. So if you take the approach that because we’ve not addressed maintenance of our existing structure, therefore you can’t plan for our future infrastructure, you end up with the same problems down the road,” Micale said. “Failure comes in many forms. Maintenance of existing structures can prevent structural failure, and planning for infrastructure can prevent functional and economic failure.”

The challenge, he said, will be in finding the best ways for the public and private sectors to join in making the right infrastructure investments; ensuring that those projects are sustainable and environmentally safe; and choosing projects that will drive the economy forward.

Regional Priorities

The responsibility for forecasting future infrastructure needs while addressing current concerns of the greater Philadelphia area falls on the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. Its executive director, Barry Seymour, also serves on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee to the Penn Praxis project.

The top priorities for DVRPC for the past year and the near future have been developing a stable funding source for SEPTA; updating the commission’s capital investment program; and working with Pennsylvania and New Jersey transportation departments on context-sensitive projects that fit the specific needs and environment of the communities they will serve. All of which could have impacts on the Central Delaware waterfront.

Seymour sees much to applaud in the Vision Plan for that area. He also sees obstacles.

“The biggest risk would be to be overly fixated on the idea of removing I-95,” he said. “I think it’s a great vision. It would be wonderful if we could snap our fingers and make it go away. But it’s obviously a huge financial burden. In a world of fiscal constraints, you look first at what are your safety problems, you look first at what you need to invest money in to maintain, so that in its life cycle cost doesn’t become a larger burden down the line and a potential safety problem.”

Since the Minneapolis disaster, planners, politicians and everyone else have been focused on bridges. “I think there’s no question that the lion’s share of new funding will go to bridge safety projects. Not new bridges, but the safety of existing bridges,” Seymour said.

“So with all those competing priorities out there, the idea of a new multi-billion dollar project that’s not being driven purely by safety concerns is a tough sell,” he said.

The I-95 proposal is “a wonderful vision,” and San Francisco, New York City and Boston will benefit positively from removing their riverfront highways, Seymour said. In Philadelphia, “the genius will come in figuring out how to pay for it.” The tab could run from $5 billion to $20 billion, according to Seymour.

“But having said that, I think that when you talk about the Vision Plan, there’s a lot more than that project,” he added. There are a number of lower-cost infrastructure projects that could be accomplished and have “tremendous benefits,” including a redesign of Columbus Boulevard, improving some of the I-95 interchanges, and fixing connections below the highway to link communities with the waterfront. Other “low-cost improvements,” which means about $10 million in DVRPC terms, include riverfront landscaping and lighting, and walkways below I-95. 

Seymour also supports the concept behind the proposed grid of new streets along the waterfront, which could ease rather than add to current congestion. “The thought is that a broader network of streets diffuses traffic,” he said. Private developers will probably build that network rather than the Streets Department, but with some public investment as well, he said.

Creating a string of waterfront parks and green spaces, as the Penn Praxis plan calls for, may involve a variety of funding sources, Seymour said. “The Fairmount Park Commission is kind of like SEPTA, in that they’ve been under-funded. They have an incredible system, but not enough resources to maintain it. So they’ve shied away from taking on new lands.” New parks along the waterfront may become Recreation Department properties, he said, or privately owned or “conservancy-type lands” that are open to the public. “There are lots of different models on how to do this. There are plenty of privately owned plazas that become terrific public space.”

Seymour recognizes there are tangential impacts to other proposals in the Vision Plan. “One is the port, and freight and goods movement,” he said. With the recent agreement to deepen the river channel through dredging, there is a push on to expand the port. “In a changing world, with the increased oil prices, there may be a real change in goods movement where there’s a potential for growth on the port. … Being sure that enough land is reserved for water uses is one issue.”

Another issue is the river itself, Seymour said, and “seeing to what extent that new development is not just sensitive to the river, but actually could enhance the water quality and the habitat quality of the river.”

“I think that being sure that new development is sensitive to that, or looks for potential opportunities, is a second area that I don’t think has been fully explored yet in the Vision Plan.”

The third issue Seymour sees is also environmental. “This is a long-term issue, but I think needs to be in people’s minds as well -- and that is climate change, sea level rise and the risk of flooding,” he said. But he noted that a “softer” approach to development and allowing for wildlife habitat could stem that tide. The revival of wetlands along the shoreline could provide a buffer area for flooding.

Despite all those concerns, Seymour embraces the aims of the Vision Plan. DVRPC, as its name implies, views the river as “the seam that binds the region.” A focus on the Delaware waterfront “has been a long time coming,” and the Penn Praxis project “hopefully will be the effort that has the legs to keep that moving forward and really make something significant happen,” he said.

DVRPC, in addition to a “constrained set of projects” that it believes can be funded by 2030, has its own Aspirations List, projects “that have been identified, been talked about, that we’d like to see, but we don’t think can be funded – at least yet,” Seymour said. “So to think about a long-term Vision Plan for the waterfront? Absolutely. You want to put that out there and keep your eye on it, and as opportunities arise, you’re able to respond to things.”

Local Limits

The perspective of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission is similar to that of DVRPC, but its budget is smaller and its focus is tighter.

The city commission’s deputy executive director, Gary Jastrzab, said that in recent years the panel has had between $50 million and $55 million annually to allocate to all of Philadelphia’s infrastructure needs, including “every rec center, every library, every police station, every paving of streets, every lighting of a highway …”

The local funds are used to leverage state and federal money, but Washington has reduced its match considerably.  For example, a CPC proposal to extend the Broad Street subway up the Roosevelt Boulevard corridor to Southampton Road would cost about $3 billion. In the past, the federal share might have been 80 percent. But the current administration has reduced its funding for new transit projects to about 50 percent. “The city of Philadelphia certainly can’t afford to install a new transit line for $1.5 billion,” Jastrzab said.

So the Penn Praxis proposal to bury or build a platform over part of I-95 gives him pause. It will be “hugely costly,” he said, although the CPC is still waiting to see what the estimated price tag will be.

 Jastrzab is also concerned about the “opportunity costs.”

“If it were decided by the federal, state and local governments to do a project of that nature, what doesn’t get done as a result?  Because there is a limited number of dollars. That’s all part of the calculus that has to occur.

“Certainly that idea of better linking part of the city to the river over that I-95 gap is one of the biggest and most important and attractive ideas of the entire plan,” and it has been discussed by CPC staff for many years. “But actually doing it, being able to pay for it … There’s a difference between a Vision Plan and the actual capital programming for implementing recommendations of the plan.”

Jastrzab also foresees bridge repair and maintenance as an ongoing priority for the city, state and federal governments in light of the Minneapolis collapse. CPC has long supported the “fix-it-first strategy” in regard to roads, bridges and transit, he said. “But we do certainly recognize the need to do new projects, too.”

At the State Transportation Commission hearing in August, Jastrzab listed the city’s infrastructure priorities and noted that Southeastern Pennsylvania is the only major metropolitan area that has not opened a “New Starts” transit project over the past 20 years.

Among the specific projects he recommended for funding was the reconfiguration of Columbus Boulevard to an “urban boulevard” with public transit and bike paths, a proposal right out of the Vision Plan.

“At the staff level we’ve certainly been very supportive of the idea of better transit service along the riverfront,” he said in a recent interview. “How exactly that service will be provided remains to be determined -- whether it’s a light-rail system, or a bus rapid transit, or some other option” such as a trolley system.

He also noted that PennDot over the next decade, or beyond, is looking to rebuild parts of I-95. “If there’s an opportunity to do a treatment of I-95 along the Central Delaware, it’s going to happen then. Hopefully, the government in Washington will have a more enlightened approach as far as these big public works projects go, and look at them more as an investment in the future – creating jobs and providing infrastructure for growing our economy – than the view may be now.”

Jastrzab is apprehensive about the Vision Plan proposal for a new network of streets along the river, “because there are a lot of implications for that.” Obtaining property to build the streets will require “some kind of negotiated purchase or condemnation, and that’s where city costs are involved.”

Planning streets on large development parcels may also cause “a chilling effect,” as developers become reluctant to build until it is clear when the streets will actually be opened.

Jastrzab said planning new streets requires that bills be introduced in City Council, followed by public hearings on the proposals. Then the city must budget the funds to pay for those streets. All are potential stumbling blocks.

“But I’m hoping that some of the big ideas that come out of the Central Delaware plan will be so exciting that there will be a lot of buy-in from all the stakeholders: neighborhood organizations, City Council, planners, architects, engineers.”

The Long View

Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis, said the proposals in the Vision Plan  are not competitive with the region’s current projects. “I think we have to take the long view,” and some triage will be needed in deciding what gets done when. “But this is a regional strategy,” he said, “not either/or.” 

The goal of the plan is to economically enhance Philadelphia through investment in infrastructure, and to help the city position itself for future growth. Funding for some of the proposals could come from mechanisms such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts, which capture as much as several hundred million dollars of future value, Steinberg said. But no doubt federal funds will also be needed.

Can the Vision Plan fly without the I-95 proposal? “Most definitely,” Steinberg said. “While the 95 plan got the most press attention, the plan is a series of big and small moves.” The most critical portion is the extension of the city street grid and the plotting of those streets to ensure Philadelphia “can grow in a sustainable fashion,” he said.

“The plan is meant to build on small successes,” Steinberg added, “and it will change over time as the city evolves and develops.”

Philadelphians have always given careful consideration to infrastructure, according to Micale, who manages planning and urban design practice at WRT in Philadelphia.

It began with William Penn’s city street grid and his concept of one-acre lots with a country-town approach. Penn’s intention was a public green in every section of the city. The idea was scaled down in the 18th century, though the concept of green squares and private gardens lived on, particularly in the Old City section.

Around the turn of the 19th century, Philadelphians purchased the land around the Schuylkill to protect the water supply, which grew into Fairmount Park, and they built a reservoir at the highest point, on the land now occupied by the Art Museum.  “They made several investments in terms of getting that water to where the city was developing, which was essentially along the Delaware waterfront, and moving back toward the Schuylkill,” he explained. “At one point,

Centre Square, where City Hall stands now, was actually a pump station – a heroic tribute to water supply itself.” And the pipe carrying the water from the reservoir to the pump ran below the present-day Ben Franklin Parkway.

“So ingrained in Philadelphia is this idea of green infrastructure, that it was carried through in protection of the water supply, the park system that was built, and in the Parkway, which was an extension of that system,” Micale said.

The city was built around concepts of green space and the design of the water system, “but recently it has been lagging behind in understanding the role of the waterfronts,” he said. A large portion of the Central Delaware has transitioned from industrial to “whatever other use the owners deem viable. And that’s sort of the problem that we’re stuck with at the moment. Private individuals are making decisions about how the waterfront is used,” Micale said.

“I think one of the things the Vision Plan is doing is setting up the environmental case for access, park space, and a new attitude towards how the city needs to lead.”

Next: Parks and green space

Alan Jaffe is a former assistant Pennsylvania editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was the courts, crime and breaking news editor in the suburban office, and also was an assigning editor in Bucks County and southern New Jersey. Before joining the Inquirer in 1999, he was the features editor at the South Jersey Courier-Post. You can reach him at alanjaffe@mac.com