Understanding Traffic Counts
To help predict how this project will impact local traffic, River Pointe Commerce Park’s transportation consultant completed a Transportation Impact Assessment based on PennDOT’s guidelines, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Land Use Code 130 (Industrial Park) and ITE Land Use Code 155 (High-Cube Fulfillment Center Warehouse – Non-Sort). The land use breakdowns have been based on the Township's suggestion of assessing the maximum potential transportation impacts. ITE categories utilized also project much higher traffic counts than post-project completion. It is anticipated that traffic impacts will be significantly less than that projected. Planned manufacturing uses, and real-world comparison of other large-scale industrial parks’ Transportation Impact Assessment projections versus actual traffic generated post-completion confirm the same; LVIP VII, for example, generated approximately 54% less traffic than projected in its Transportation Impact Assessment.
River Pointe’s traffic study anticipates 3,015 daily truck trips. Additional passenger car trips can be expected, as employees travel to and from work. At full build-out, with manufacturers as occupants, these numbers are expected to be even lower.
Minimizing Traffic and Disruption
Not a single residence is located along the 1.5-mile stretch from River Pointe Commerce Park to I-80. There is no access on Potomac Street to the development other than for emergency vehicles. This intentional design ensures vehicle trips to and from River Pointe Commerce Park will only utilize River Road to and from I-80, not circumventing surrounding township roads.
The primary access point will be off River Road via River Pointe Drive, which is proposed to terminate at a cul-de-sac. The park will have multiple points of emergency access that will be locked and gated, so they cannot be used unless there is an emergency. Easy access to I-80, only 1.5 miles from the site and accessible via River Road, will keep truck traffic out of neighborhoods and the town proper. In addition, rail access, which once served the now-shuttered coal-fired electric generation plant, will provide a low-cost transportation option for future tenants while keeping traffic off River Road.
River Pointe Commerce Park is using creative ways of reducing vehicle movements during the project's construction, including an already planted 2,200-tree onsite nursery to eliminate the movement of mature trees to the site. The developer is also evaluating additional methods of reducing construction traffic during buildout by using onsite resources to minimize truck traffic.