BENNETT: And You Paid for It!!!
by Jack Bennet
Did you ever wonder who is making some of the decisions that we must deal with every day?
Take for example all of the construction in and around Kittanning and Ford City this past year.
For the sake of not beating a dead horse we will not talk of the bridge, Market Street or two way traffic. However, we will talk of the “turn lane” for the new high school, the Edgewood intersection and the north entrance into Manorville.
As the Edgewood intersection was being rebuilt, it was for two lanes to turn left “up the hill.”
Now logic would say to me, we have two turn lanes so we have two lanes of travel.
WRONG ! When we get to the turn off for the new high school, instead of having an additional lane on the right to turn right, we have taken one of the two “thru” lanes and turned it into a turn lane. Now if that was the plan all along, why in the dickens did we make such a fuss about the Edgewood intersection and two turn lanes? That just doesn’t make sense..
Then we have the bridge (culvert) replacement at Manorville. The entrance to Manorville southbound always was close, now it is impossible. To turn into Manorville while traveling south, you cannot make that turn without going into the opposing lane of traffic.
Who designs this stuff ?
We had two opportunities to make things better in our community, we spent a lot of money, inconvenienced many people, and what do we have ? A lot of money spent, time consumed and three pretty changes to the roads that didn’t improve anything.
I think of an old slogan used here: Temporary inconvenience, permanent improvement.
Let’s hope these aren’t permanent.
The views expresssed are those of the author.
BENNETT: Commentary | Jack Bennett January 20, 2015
By mad-2010, January 20, 2015 @ 5:28 AM
Good job on this article, Jack….
By Salty, January 20, 2015 @ 6:43 AM
Jack,I couldn’t agree more with you. In regard to the Edgewood intersection, I believe PennDOT should have taken a wait and see attitude with the bus traffic coming out of Kittanning. They could have waited to see if the bus traffic did cause some buildup of traffic. If it did, then they could have worked on it the following summer to make the change to what is now a very confusing left turn for some motorists. If it didn’t cause any buildup, we would have saved a lot of tax dollars. I also agree that the right turn area into the new school is also confusing. Hopefully with the installation of new traffic lights at this location, they will also make the traffic lanes at this location also less confusing.