Atwater Business Park
Traffic Impact Study

East Whiteland and Tredyffrin Townships, Chester County, PA

TPD has provided comprehensive transportation consulting services for this ongoing project at the northern end of the Great Valley Corporate Center. The site is bordered by Route 29 on the west, Yellow Springs Road on the north, Church Road and St. Peter's Church to the east, and the Valley Creek and Great Valley Corporate Center to the south. The project has been challenging due to the following factors:

The proposed use is for 2.5 million square feet of office space in approximately a dozen buildings. The East Whiteland Township planner has stated that it will be one of the ten largest business parks in the Delaware Valley when it is built out.

It is located along a section of Route 29 which is still only two lanes wide, and there are many congested intersections in the immediate area (e.g., Route 29/White Horse Road and Route 29/Charlestown Road/Phoenixville Pike).

Two municipalities are involved which means there are two reviewing consultants, two sets of approval boards, and often conflicting priorities.

East Whiteland Township recently declared a moratorium on development.

The PA Turnpike is proposing slip ramps for Route 29 that will impact study area intersections and may well cut across part of the site.

The bordering municipality to the north (Charlestown Township) is notoriously anti-development, and has sued the Pennsylvania Turnpike in an attempt to prevent the installation of slip ramps at Route 29.

Another developer in the area has designed (but not built) improvements for Route 29 that will effect at least three of the study area intersections.

In conjunction with the project team, TPD has followed a highly interactive approach with the municipalities, wherein their feedback is constantly sought and reflected in the proposed access plan. TPD completed a comprehensive traffic impact study for the ten-intersection study area in December 1999, and also prepared a twelve-foot long 50-scale plan depicting the planned improvements to the study area intersections. As of this writing, Trammell Crow was proposing a multi-million dollar roadway/signalization improvement project for Route 29, in addition to improvements that would be needed to facilitate access to and from the site. TPD has coordinated with staff from PennDOT, the PA Turnpike, and the Chester County Planning Commission to keep the project on-track and moving forward.