County Executive Lamont G. McClure voted no on the proposed 2023 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) at today’s Lehigh Valley Transportation Study (LVTS) Joint Technical & Coordinating Meeting.

The proposed 2023 Long Range Transportation Plan continues to perpetuate the inequitable distribution of transportation funding within the Lehigh Valley. Under the 2023 proposed plan, only 18% of funding would be directed toward projects located solely in Northampton County. While this is an improvement over the 15% Northampton County was slated to receive under the prior 2019 LRTP, it continues to be approximately half of the funding allocated to Lehigh County. Beginning with the 2019 LRTP update, Northampton County has proposed numerous projects that we feel are a high priority for PennDOT to address, but they have either been omitted from the plan or remain in the preliminary phase of design. This disparity will likely continue or worsen as the $243 million “22 Tomorrow” study commences and more funding is allocated towards a proposed expansion of Route 22 in the Allentown area.

“All of our Northampton County legislators should make it abundantly clear in Harrisburg that relegating us to second-class status when it comes to infrastructure funding is unacceptable,” says Executive Lamont McClure.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Brittney Waylen
Deputy Director of Administration & Public Information Officer
County of Northampton
669 Washington Street
Easton, PA 18042
https://www.northamptoncounty.org/

 

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