Federal bill would restore billions for Chinatown Stitch and other transportation projects

Congressman Brendan Boyle is co-sponsoring federal provision to reverse part of President Donald Trump s so-called Big Beautiful Bill and restore billions of dollars for Philadelphia s Chinatown Stitch and other defunded transportation projects around the country The Stitch project would cap a section of the Vine Street Expressway between th and th streets and build a park there inspired by Chinese cultural traditions It aims to partially undo the disruption of the neighborhood caused by the widening of Vine Street in the s and construction of the highway in the s The Biden administration had awarded the project two grants totaling million but greater part of the funding was clawed back by the reconciliation bill Trump signed in July On Monday Boyle visited the Crane Society Center next to the expressway to meet with city and state transportation authorities and discuss tactics to move the project forward A park is planned for the Chinatown Stitch cap over the Vine Street Expressway City of Philadelphia He mentioned afterward that he s sponsoring the REPAIR Act Restoring Essential Citizens Access and Improving Resilient Infrastructure Venture Act to provide full funding for the Stitch and other projects across the country We are here to say we are not giving up on this project This society has been fighting literally for decades in order to reconnect it and we re not stopping now he disclosed I feel more confident than ever that we have a plan to move forward with the funds that already exist to get us through so that way we can repair at the federal level the funds that were taken away from us The proposed federal measure would spend billion a year from to on transportation and infrastructure work That would include about billion worth of projects that were rescinded by the reconciliation bill Boyle declared Decades of ups and downs Area leaders have long aspired to cap the portion of the below-grade I- Vine Street Expressway that cuts across the north end of the neighborhood The roadway s construction required the demolition of a multitude of homes and businesses forces schoolchildren and other residents to regularly cross several lanes of traffic on Vine Street and has stunted Chinatown s northward expansion they say This is a river that cuts through our society and divides it and because this neighborhood deserves and demands it we want to see this project happen to reconnect our locality John Chin executive director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Enhancement Corporation PCDC announced at Monday s press conference But also there s economic opportunity and evolution along with this project and that s really key for Chinatown The cap at last seemed poised to become a reality with the passage in of the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also known as the Infrastructure Expenditure and Jobs Act in The law included the Reconnecting Communities Pilot plan which was created specifically to fix problems created by highway construction that cut off communities from economic opportunity In Philadelphia received a million federal grant for planning and engineering work on the Stitch and in won a million grant from the U S Department of Transportation s billion Neighborhood Access and Equity Venture NAEP city executives declared The western section of the planned Chinatown Stitch park over the Vine Street Expressway would include trees a lawn and a water feature City of Philadelphia This past August designers commissioned by the city s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems OTIS presented a design for a two-block section of the proposed highway cap spanning from just east of th Street to a bit east of th Street Design renderings manifested a lush park with trees and landscaping a lawn with a covered plaza a playground a small stream a moon gate and garden inspired by Chinese traditions a food kiosk and restrooms By then however Trump had signed the federal reconciliation bill which rescinded billion in previously approved spending including for NAEP and other infrastructure projects Medicaid Affordable Care Act subsidies food aid and a slew of other programs We have our ups and downs We were ecstatic when the money was approved for the Chinatown Stitch project We were devastated when the money disappeared Chin revealed So we are dependably persistent The city held on to million of the infrastructure law funding that had already been obligated or legally committed to the project That s being used for engineering design and other preparatory work and will be stretched to last through February Boyle mentioned Bipartisan encouragement claimed This week congressional Democrats introduced the Restoring Essential Masses Access and Improving Resilient Infrastructure REPAIR Act with Boyle as a lead co-sponsor It would restore billion for NAEP and overall would budget billion annually for five years for road and infrastructure projects around the country he disclosed While Democratic and Republican legislators have been unable to agree on other funding fixes such as a restoration of Affordable Care Act subsidies Boyle recalled the broad advocacy for the original infrastructure law and disclosed he thought the REPAIR Act has a real chance of becoming law I was there at the White House South Lawn We had Republican speakers as well as Democratic speakers We had more than a two-thirds vote in the United States Senate including the then-Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell he revealed So we have shown already just in current years that help for infrastructure can be bipartisan Boyle met Monday morning with Chin state Sen Nikil Saval Councilmember Mark Squilla deputy managing director for OTIS Michael Carroll a PennDOT official and others to assess the status of the Chinatown Stitch and explore unspecified additional funding sources he reported This is a project that has input from the people who live in the region and what it means to them and OTIS has been steadfast in their mission to make sure this project happens even when the money was pulled away Squilla explained after the meeting We re hoping that by the time we re ready to go and our planning process is done and the money that s funded gets us to a certain position that this act will be passed and therefore the funding will be regenerated so this project can move forward he disclosed The post Federal bill would restore billions for Chinatown Stitch and other transportation projects appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY