This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Engineer: New Tatamy Traffic Lights Lack Emergency Control Devices

Council members also unhappy with traffic study for the proposed Charles Chrin Companies interchange.

During its May 2 meeting, Tatamy Borough Council discussed the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's traffic study for the proposed interchange that would connect Route 33 to Main Street in the borough. However, a bigger issue surfaced.

The at the intersection of Eighth and Main streets do not include traffic control devices that allow emergency vehicles to change the light to green, according to Robert Mack, the borough's engineer.

George Achenbach, chief of Tatamy police, said the devices are needed because “if you can change the light before you get there, then you decrease the likelihood of an accident.”

Find out what's happening in Palmer-Forkswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Mack said he believed the traffic control devices were required, but that  Telco, the project's traffic installation company, "has no intention of putting them in."

The devices are not required by the state of Pennsylvania, according to Ron Y0ung, press officer for PennDOT District 5-0.

Telco, a Reading company, was hired by Charles Chrin Companies -- the company -- to install traffic lights at the intersections of Eighth and Main and Eighth and Commerce Drive. The Eighth and Main lights are in place but the Eighth and Commerce lights are not.

Find out what's happening in Palmer-Forkswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to Mack, Telco representatives told him the devices were not in the work order. 

Borough Mayor Luke Duignam told council members the traffic lights -- with the traffic control devices -- would cost $8,800 per intersection. The $8,800, however, does not include the cost of the emergency transmitters needed by all emergency vehicles to activate the devices, Duignam added.

According to Achenbach, the transmitters cost between $1,500 and $1,800 per vehicle.

PennDOT's Young said Tatamy officials must contact Chrin and put in a request for the traffic control devices. If officials do decide to ask for the devices, Chrin would need to submit a permit modification to PennDOT, Young said.

“It wouldn’t be anything difficult to do,” he said.

Meanwhile, back to the traffic study. Mack showed council members a binder about four inches thick that Councilwoman Hazel DeReamus jokingly said looked like the federal health-care bill.

Mack explained that the study is based on a five-year time frame, but believes it should cover a span of 20 years.

Within that four-inch binder, according to Mack, all he learned was that traffic will increase 40 to 50 percent by 2013.

Mack said the study was based on no development. However, according to a brochure about the property, Chrin plans to develop the land in three phases, with Phase I featuring office space, retail sites and upper-story loft apartments.

Mack added that the study does not take into consideration potential issues that may affect Main Street, such as noise, traffic vibration, vehicle types, living conditions or street width.

Council members unanimously agreed to have Mack send a review letter to PennDOT covering the study's unaddressed issues.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Palmer-Forks