By Lyta Ringo –
During last school year, many students faced the road detours caused by the rebuilding of the Stehman Road bridge. Well, PennDOT is at it again. Many may know of the underpass located on Marticville Road. A good percent of Penn Manor’s students, faculty, and community members travel on that road everyday.
The bridge has caused problems in the past, due to its very sharp turn, most try and avoided it at all costs by using the overpass located before the bridge, according to a report published at the beginning of March by lancasteronline.com.
Senior Ben Hershock admitted he’s had some issues with people not paying attention while going through the bridge.
“I myself have never had problems,” said Hershock, “but I’ve seen many people just take the turn without looking, then realize there’s a car coming and panic.”
The overpass used to be a dirt road with many trees and no traffic signs. However six municipalities took ownership of the crossover. Converting it to a safer traveling space.
The trees surrounding the area were removed, the overpass was paved, and traffic signs were installed. All of this sounds like a good thing right? But that’s not all.
Stated by the same news report, ownership of the overpass was signed over to the municipalities to fix up the overpass. Now that it is fixed and able to drive on safely, the state has found somethings wrong with it. For instance the road doesn’t meet the states standards.
“I don’t think closing it (the overpass) would be that big of a deal,” said Hershock.
Any students agreed that the bridge isn’t that big of an issue as long as there isn’t huge vehicles going through it.
“I go through the bridge all the time to get to my grandparents house, and I’ve never had any problems there,” said sophomore Adrienne Eager, “I mean I wouldn’t wanna be on the other side if a bus or construction vehicle was coming through, because that probably wouldn’t work too well.”
Deciding against its staff recommendation, the county planning commission, held a meeting to try and get the overpass turned into an actual road. As reported by lancasteronline.com, in the process of this happening $1.6million in federal and state money has been set aside for this project.
The only problem is the new road is in conflict with a in process PennDOT project, in which the entire 23-mile Enola line would become a rail-trail. The deadline for this project has been passed and no contract exists. However the trail is still up for question.
In the situation that this would happen the overpass would be closed, and all traffic would be directed under the bride again. Raising the question of if it would cause more traffic issues or if Holtwood would stay a quiet and peaceful place.