Concerns rise over truck traffic again

Following concerns raised last month about truck traffic on Mininger Road after Towamencin and Hatfield started new restrictions on truck traffic on some roads in those municipalities, Franconia has asked its engineer to look into its options for posting Mininger Road a no truck route and has reached out to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for its advice, Township Manager Jon Hammer said at the March 19 Franconia Township Board of Supervisors meeting.

“What we don’t want to do is push the problem to another area,” Hammer said. “What we need to do is come up with a little bit more of a comprehensive solution.”

The township probably can post no trucks signs on township roads, he said.

“But the trucks eventually are going to have to go somewhere. We can’t post the entire border of Franconia Township no truck traffic. We

can’t do it on state roads. So what we don’t want to do is push them onto a local road or on to somewhere that they shouldn’t be,” Hammer said. “Part of the options that we’re looking at is what’s the best solution to get them where they need to go.”

Mininger Road resident Jennifer Torres said she understands, but said the problems from trucks on her road are becoming worse since the other towns started the restrictions there.

“It’s tearing up the intersection. It’s tearing up the roads,” Torres said.

It’s not the truck drivers’ fault, she said, but, “It’s very unsafe.”

Truck drivers have to go into lawns to avoid hitting utility poles or other vehicles at the intersection of Mininger and Cowpath roads, Torres and Dawn Transue, another Mininger Road resident, said.

Transue said she’s followed trucks on her way home from work.

“These trucks are going out of their way to take a detour through our township,” she said.

“I do understand that truck traffic is everywhere. We’re not going to eliminate truck traffic, but for Hatfield to push it into Franconia just because they don’t want to deal with it is very unfair,” Torres said.

Just as there are trucks using Franconia streets to get to businesses in neighboring towns, there are trucks using the streets of neighboring towns to come to businesses in Franconia, board Chairman Grey Godshall said.

“We’re kind of investigating it all. As much as I would love to just go post Mininger Road tomorrow, that’s not a solution to what we’re dealing with,” Godshall said.

“We’re going to hopefully take a couple months and get some good ideas,” he said. “We’re going to take the time. I don’t know if the result’s going to be what we’re all looking for, but I’d like something a little more purposeful than just people throwing up signs.”

In another matter at the meeting, Police Chief Joseph Kozeniewski said while giving his report that the four local police departments in Souderton Area School District and Pennsylvania State Police met with Souderton Area School District officials following the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman High School in Florida.

The police have reviewed response plans for attacks at the schools and will be doing additional training, he said.

He’s also been contacted by churches and is working with them, he said.

“It’s a sort of sad thing that we have to worry about security for Sunday church services,” Kozeniewski said.