Thriving Navy Yard needs a subway extension

PHILADELPHIA'S long-dormant Navy Yard is once again teeming with life, though the military sea captains of the past have since given way to captains of industry.

The newest corporate tenant at the yard is Heliosphera, a Greek solar-panel manufacturer which intends to build a facility that will employ as many as 400 people.

Other major tenants include Tasty Baking, Aker Shipyard and Urban Outfitters. In all, there are more than 80 companies and 8,000 workers currently at the yard. With 1,200 acres of prime industrial real estate on the Delaware waterfront, there's significant potential for future growth.

As is often the case, with progress comes unforeseen challenges. With so much recent growth in corporate tenants at the Navy Yard, how does the city address the transportation infrastructure challenges inherent in getting thousands of workers (and thousands more in the future) to and from the Navy Yard?

Although there is fairly easy access to the Navy Yard for motorists via I-95, the last thing the beleaguered residents of South Philadelphia need is more traffic congestion and air pollution.

The yard is more than a half-mile walk from the Pattison Avenue SEPTA station, the end of the Broad Street subway line. That's a long walk and a big problem, but the answer might be found in an ambitious plan to extend the Broad Street subway right to the Navy Yard.

For several years, I've been championing a plan to extend the subway line to the yard, both as a means to create jobs in this stagnant economy and as a needed improvement to the city's transportation infrastructure.

I wasn't alone. Nearly a year ago, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC), through a grant provided by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission Council and with the cooperation of city government and SEPTA, completed the Broad Street Line Extension Feasibility Study. It examined both the engineering challenges and economic hurdles to extending the subway line from Pattison Avenue into the Navy Yard.

The findings were encouraging. The study team looked at several alternatives, including the continued operation of the existing shuttle bus from Pattison Avenue, a higher frequency bus service timed to meet every subway train arrival, and Philly's version of Boston's "Big Dig" - the underground extension of the subway.

The PIDC study confirmed the feasibility of constructing a 1.5-mile subway extension into the Navy Yard with a new station in the Corporate Center currently under construction and another station in a planned marina at the east end of the property. The estimated cost of this undertaking is approximately $370 million (in 2008 dollars).

The study confirmed the extended subway line's effect as a catalyst to spur greater development at the Navy Yard, a big economic shot in the arm for the city and state, and strong rider demand for the new service.

The project will also mean desperately needed jobs for the city's skilled - and presently underutilized - workforce.

THE ADDITIONAL development around transit stations as a result of the subway extension will provide the strapped city coffers with more than $4.6 billion in economic impact from development and $390 million directly from constructing the subway extension.

The study projects 8,000 additional permanent jobs and 3,750 new construction jobs from the extension project. As a labor leader, that's music to my ears.

Now for the kicker: How do we pay for such a major initiative? It won't be easy, but a public-private partnership seems feasible.

In the first phase of the Obama administration's federal stimulus package, $20 billion was earmarked for infrastructure improvements for major U.S. cities.

I can think of no better use of but a small percentage of those dollars than to fund a project that will create jobs, spark significant development, alleviate traffic congestion and pollution, and improve the quality of life for the millions of people who call the Philadelphia region home.

To borrow a once-cool '60s expression, can you dig it?

John J. Dougherty is business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98.