Posted on 01/16/2019 11:12:58 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
LOWER SALFORD — There are times when Cassel Road should be closed down because of the mud on the road from the work to widen the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors member Phil Heilman said at the board's Nov. 21 morning work session.
He drove on the road on a recent day, he said.
"It was solid mud," he said.
Heilman said he was driving behind another vehicle.
"His car was chocolate, just like mine," Heilman said. "We gotta keep an eye on that."
Police Chief Tom Medwid said officers are checking on the road each day, but Heilman said that's after the fact when the problems have already occurred.
The damage to the road from the truck traffic will also make it difficult to do snow plowing there this winter, township officials said.
There has been some effort made to improve the situation, such as putting in stone roads to replace the former dirt road entrances to the construction site and attempts to clean off mud before the trucks return to the road, but there's more that should be done, board member Chris Canavan said.
"When they clean it, all they're doing is pushing it into the roadside swales, and I know they have filters on the inlets down there, but those things are not stopping it from getting into the creeks," he said.
That flies in the face of state and federal requirements that the amount of sediment going into waterways be reduced, Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said.
A meeting with turnpike representatives and local state officials to discuss the concerns is scheduled for Dec. 11, the Lower Salford officials said. Franconia Township officials have also raised concerns about problems on roads in that municipality from the work and have been invited to attend the Lower Salford meeting.
The widening is to make the roadway three lanes in each direction instead of the current two lanes. The portion currently being worked on is in Lower Salford, Franconia and Salford townships.
Resident Steve Moyer, whose Yoder Road home borders the turnpike and whose family owns a Cassel Road farm directly across the road from the turnpike construction entrance, said dirt is being washed from the construction site into the Skippack Creek.
Another concern is the pile of ground being made at the Cassel Road site from soil removed elsewhere for the turnpike work, he said. Moyer said he'd like to see the pile lowered.
"There's no concern from the turnpike or their engineers or whoever is responsible for that for the aesthetics of the community," he said at the township meeting.
"Aesthetically they have destroyed this section of our township. The mountain the turnpike is building (big enough and high enough that they have an actual road across the middle where two of the large earthmovers can pass) has blocked the vista view from the eastern end of the township, Reed Park, and looking out my back window totally eliminated any sense of horizon and vista view," Moyer wrote in a letter to township officials. "Prior to their thoughtless building of the mountain, we were able to see into Bucks County and beyond. Our township is suffering from their unscrupulous disregard of land management."
Lower Salford has worked hard over the years to preserve land and plant trees, he said, but the turnpike project has included clear cutting trees.
"There is no stewardship of the land, and there's no conservation," Moyer said.
Heilman said there have been previous meetings to discuss the problems.
"The Turnpike Commission is not responsive to anybody," including other state officials, he said. "They don't listen to anybody."
"If this were being done by a private contractor and we had the authority, that job would've been shut down six months ago," board Chairman Doug Gifford said.
Canavan, who works for a developer, said if that business did what is being done on the turnpike project, it would never again get construction permits.
Moyer said everybody tells him the turnpike has the legal authority to do what it is doing.
"They may have that, but I'm telling you right now, in my opinion, it's morally wrong," he said.
Another of the concerns is about the future of the soil pile, Canavan said.
"At the end of the day, we're going to have a mountain there, whether it's the height it is now or we can talk them into regrading it some," he said, "but what's it going to end up being afterwards?"
"It's going to end up being exactly what it is at the Kulpsville interchange now," board member Doug Johnson said, referring to a pile in Towamencin Township from previous turnpike work.
Ground vegetation can be planted to try to lessen runoff, Moyer said.
"That's not usable for anything, period," he said of the pile.
"The construction of the additional lanes for the NE Extension is understandably an improvement that will benefit the common good," Moyer wrote in the letter to the township. "However, I believe in their goal of this construction project they are and have displayed a total disregard for conservation, land stewardship, water management, road safety, respect of the environment, respect for our residents, and respect for land aesthetics."
The slope of the soil pile is "nowhere close" to meeting township steep slopes ordinances, he wrote.
"The dirt and rock the turnpike is using to build the mountains is being trucked from miles north, across our roads, destroying the roads, creating traffic hazards, and leaving the roads covered with inches of mud," Moyer wrote. "The street sweeper they drive up and down Cassel and Fretz road is nothing more than 'eye wash' and simply sweeps the dirt into the drainage ditches that again flows into the water shed."
After initially being granted one construction entrance on Cassel Road, the turnpike now has three entrances on Cassel Road and one on Yoder Road, he wrote.
"As a fifth generation resident of this township, I am extremely frustrated, angry and disappointed to see the turnpike ruining our township and the lands of my forefathers," Moyer wrote. "No other landowner or resident of Lower Salford Township would be permitted to destroy the lands, watersheds, conservation gains, and vista views. Why should we allow the turnpike to destroy our township?"
PING.
I don't know the area and can't comment on this specific project … but yes. Proper stewardship of the above is the responsibility of roadbuilders. And if that makes roads much more expensive, so be it. I usually get drawn into these discussions when they involve roads in residential areas and bike lanes and sidewalks get involved. This involves the widening of an already-existing interstate so that may not be relevant here. But landscaping is always important. Spend the bucks to make it nice or shield residents from the noise and view.
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