Thursday, January 27, 2011

More issues involving gas industry truck traffic

As my regular readers know, I am often pointing out the issues that have been created by the significant increase in truck traffic in Northeast Pennsylvania, specifically Bradford, Tioga, Sullivan and Susquehana Counties. I have written about many of the truck accidents that occur every day. But one of the issues of increased heavy truck traffic is the damage done to the roads. From The Towanda Daily Review:

Gas industry trucks are expected to cause additional damage to roads in Bradford County during this year's freeze-thaw cycle, an assistant maintenance manager with the state Department of Transportation.

"We expect some ... road breakage" to occur during the freeze-thaw cycle, said Warren Knapp, assistant maintenance manager for PennDOT in Bradford County.

Knapp said that he hoped that when the gas companies "see the road beginning to fall apart," they would take the pro-active step of ceasing to drive on the road so that area residents can continue to use it.

Knapp made his comments at a summit meeting on traffic and road issues that took place Tuesday at Bradford County's 911 center.

The summit meeting, which was organized on behalf of the Bradford County commissioners and the Bradford County Emergency Services Department, was also attended by officials from the state police and several gas drilling companies, all three Bradford County commissioners, the Troy and Towanda police chiefs, the Wysox and North Towanda fire chiefs, and representatives from the Bradford County Emergency Services Department and Bradford-Susquehanna EMS Council.

During last year's freeze-thaw cycle, there was "some very, very severe road breakup" in areas of Bradford County, with other areas receiving lesser damage, Knapp said. The damage has since been addressed, Knapp said.

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