Chronic issues with oversized trucks getting lost then trapped on rural or dirt roads, or drivers ignoring existing commercial truck signage returned to the forefront when a large tractor-trailer became stuck on Smithtown Road attempting a turn onto Route 32.
Vice Chair Jim Helms on Feb. 7 opened a broad discussion of this issue, including past ideas discussed but not acted upon as yet.
“Instead of limiting trucks on certain Tinicum roads, can we simply declare specific roads as official truck routes?” Helms asked.
Solicitor Steve Harris knew of no existing authorization to designate new truck routes other than to “un-designate” certain roads for trucks. Helms concurred this may not be feasible as it would require a costly new study and signage for each rural and dirt road in question.
Resident Luke Sorenson countered that Act 31 of 2018 now makes it possible to waive hiring a traffic study engineer.
“If we do need a quick study for a particularly troublesome road, it is now a far less burdensome process,” stated Sorenson.
Municipal staff or officials can now simply complete the study via a PennDOT online form.
Helms raised a secondary challenge of cost management for adding bulk signage across the large number of secondary roads throughout the township. Tinicum has approximately 107 miles of roads, 74 maintained by the Department of Public Works, the remainder by PennDOT. Doug Skelton, director of the township Department of Public Works, questioned the effectiveness of adding more truck signage.
“There was a white ‘No Trucks’ sign in place at the Smithtown Road intersection in question — and it did not stop the truck driver,” Skelton said. “Would the cost involved in the new signage be enough to effectively address this problem?”
Helms felt there has been some limited success after the board gave a commercial GPS provider a list of Tinicum’s no-truck roads.
“They were not aware of Tinicum’s truck size limitations until we provided them with the information,” Manager Teri Lewis said.
The truck-specific GPS presents drivers with rural routes deemed appropriate for their vehicle size. Some drivers may be using the typical consumer-grade GPS and not the commercially focused services. However, the board still agreed to start a regular process of providing updates to the commercial service.
Supervisors Chairman Rich Rosamilia also queried Solicitor Harris, “what would prevent us from simply putting up signs that say ‘trucks, this way’ — is there a law that says we can’t do that?”
Harris responded, “Local road signage must be PennDOT-approved. However, they do maintain a huge signage manual and there may be an existing, approved sign doing exactly what you are suggesting.” Rosamilia asked the board investigate.
Resident Richard Balukas thanked the board for the in-depth debate on Tinicum’s large-scale truck challenges, and pressed them not to lose sight of the critical need to continue to seek viable solutions. This includes asking residents to proactively provide data to the police whenever possible.
“We need to do everything we can to provide our police with proper data when incidents occur. Are we able to cite truck drivers for their excessive weight and trailer size?”
Police Chief Nicole Madden responded, “Until we have the signage throughout our county, we cannot cite them.” However, if residents can provide specific visual and company ID information, it may allow for potential action in certain situations.
Following the contentious debate at the Jan. 17 board meeting over allowing outside vendors at the Earth Day Fair, the board received the list for approval from event chair Cyndi Gasparre. The approved vendor list for the April 22 event no longer includes the Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania.
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