Community Impact Assessment


1996 view north on 10th Street, the heart of Philadelphia, PA's, Chinatown .

Community Preservation: Chinatown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Mitigation Measures

The compromise design for Vine Street Expressway opened the way to extensive and innovative mitigation measures. Assisting greatly in this was the designation of Chinatown and several other Vine Street communities as Historic Districts under Section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966. These designations occurred with the agreement of PennDOT and FHWA in the early 1980s. It was widely held at the time that the Historic-District designations would encourage broad flexibility for mitigation design and funding.

The following are highlights of mitigation measures used on the Vine Street Expressway:

  • Once the decision was reached not to acquire or relocate Holy Redeemer, the issue became how to preserve or enhance access to the Church and School. A wide, well-landscaped bridge across the depressed Vine Street Expressway at 10th Street was constructed. Careful landscaping and attention to design and construction detail were provided along the bridge to conceal the expressway below.
  • Landscaping was placed carefully to conceal views of the expressway.

  • Noise walls in the vicinity of Chinatown were designed of brick, with Chinese characters symbolizing longevity imprinted on the walls and on nearby sidewalks at frequent intervals.

  • The fence along the Vine Street service roads represents another significant design innovation. The anodized aluminum fence shown in the photograph was not significantly more expensive than a chain link fence. However, using it required an exception to FHWA design standards.
Mitigation and Enhancement Features

  • A reduced-scale project was chosen.
  • An extra-wide vehicle/pedestrian bridge at 10th Street maintains access to the church and school.
  • Detailed landscaping along project right-of-way and over the 10th Street bridge helps maintain quality of life.
  • Design features such as cultural icon and aesthetic fencing were consistent with the community culture.
  • A sustainable landscape maintenance plan was developed.
  • Air conditioning, central heating, and noise retardant windows in schools and churches helped contain dust and reduce noise.
  • Expressway retaining walls were angled inward to minimize noise in the community.
  • The city agreed to pay $200,000 annually for landscape maintenance, with PennDOT picking up anything in excess of this amount. Over the years, there has been very little evidence of landscape deterioration along he Vine Street Expressway.

  • Air conditioning and noise-retardant windows were installed in the schools and churches along the route, including Holy Redeemer, to mitigate the effects of noise and dust. In addition, expressway retaining walls, designed to curve inward toward the highway, resulted in additional noise mitigation.

  • In order to provide continuity of traffic circulation, retaining walls were constructed in narrow pits deep in the ground prior to removing existing, at-grade traffic ways on Vine Street.
The Vine Street Expressway was completed in January 1991. Chinatown, under continuous leadership, is enjoying a renaissance due, in part, to the mitigation implemented for this project.

Since the early 1980s, the Philadelphia Chinatown Downtown Development Corporation has developed 172 units of new housing and is in the process of developing 51 more on the north side of Vine Street, adjacent to Holy Redeemer. This housing project holds the prospect of facilitating Chinatown's northward expansion into the neighborhood of the Church and School. A substantial amount of housing rehabilitation has also taken place. Community leaders estimate that the population of Chinatown is now in the thousands, and growing.


Introduction
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