Truck ban planned on Kriebel Road
TOWAMENCIN >> Township officials are eyeing new restrictions for truck traffic on a road often used to avoid traffic.
Traffic engineer Chad Dixson reported last week on, and the board has voted ahead, new restrictions along a section of Kriebel Road.
“This was based on complaints the township had received last fall, for large trucks using Kriebel Road as a result of some detour or construction activity,” he said.
“Currently, there’s a restriction on Kriebel from Anders Road to Sumneytown Pike, that restricts trucks of three axles or more from using that section. Our
study entailed from Anders Way over to Old Forty Foot Road,” he said.
According to Dixson and supervisors Chairman Chuck Wilson, the complaints fielded last fall prompted a concern from the traffic engineer that the western section of Kriebel currently has no restrictions for large trucks, not even in areas they may have trouble navigating due to the geography of the roadway.
“There is a Z-turn on that section of road that is challenging in a car, let alone a tractor trailer,” Wilson said.
In January the board authorized the traffic engineer to study that section of roadway, and Dixson reported back the results on June 9. The restrictions placed on roadways are governed by the state’s vehicle code, the traffic engineer told the board, meaning certain conditions must be documented via formal study before any limits can be set.
“In this case, the focus of our study was on whether there was adequate turning radii at intersections, and adequate road width, and geometry for trucks to travel,” he said.
At Kriebel and Old Forty Foot, a vehicle turning right from Kriebel “has to swing out into the opposing lane, on Old Forty Foot in order to make the movement,” Dixson said, showing an aerial photo of the
intersection with vehicle sketches superimposed.
In the sketch, a yellow rectangle representing a truck, with red and blue lines indicating the path of the vehicle body and tires respectively, swings out nearly the entire distance into the opposing lane of traffic before returning into the proper lane once the turn is complete.
At the Z-curve, the results were similar: “as we ran our truck tracking template through the Z-curve, we found trucks had to do a combination of travel over the center line, or travel off the roadway, to negotiate the Z-curve. And that’s not an ideal situation,” he said.
Similar vehicle paths into opposing lanes were also noted at the intersection of Kriebel with Springer Road, at an L-turn just south of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Trumbauer Road, and at a curve south of the intersection with Springer Road near Metz Road, Dixson told the board, while showing aerials of each intersection with the truck paths outlined.
“At four of the five locations, single-unit box trucks had difficultly either completing the turning movements, or negotiating the horizontal turns,” he said. “The fifth one, west of the turnpike overpass, a slightly larger truck was able to successfully negotiate, but still had difficulty.”
Recommendations from the traffic engineer include restricting all trucks with three or more axles, except
for local or residential deliveries, between Bustard Road and Anders Road, mirroring the other portion of Kriebel.
“That would be consistent with the existing restriction, from Anders Road up to Sumneytown Pike,” Dixson said.
A formal ordinance would need to be passed by the board before the restrictions go into effect, and then the engineer would work with township public works staff to determine locations for signs, and install them.
Supervisor Dan Littley asked if the engineer’s study yielded data on speeding throughout that section, and Dixson said it did — but with traffic largely staying close to the posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour.
“Eighty-five percent of traffic is going to travel at 42 miles per hour, or less. That is over the posted speed limit, but it’s not uncommon to see 85th percentile speeds over the posted speed limit,” he said.
“Typically, you would like to see it within five miles per hour of the posted speed limit, that’s ideal. Once you get above 10 miles per hour above the posted speed limit, that’s when it gets to be a concern.”
Wilson asked if Dixson and his firm took another look at Kriebel between Anders and Sumneytown Pike, and Dixson said they did not, because restrictions are already in place there. Supervisor Dan Bell asked how police would enforce
the restrictions if put in place on the second section, and police Chief Tim Troxel said his department would likely not add any extra patrols or enforcement there.
“I don’t think it would really change anything too much, as far as the enforcement efforts or levels go,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of violations that we’re dealing with right now. I think, just due to the nature of the
road, a lot of trucks avoid it because they know they can’t keep their trucks on the road,” Troxel said.
The board voted unanimously to direct staff to prepare and advertise an ordinance putting those restrictions in place, and the adoption could take place at a future board meeting. Towamencin’s supervisors next meet at 7:30 p.m. on June 23; for more information visit www.Towamencin.org.