By JUDITH O. ETZEL – Contributing writer
The Venango County commissioners are pulling out all the stops in an effort to sideline any plan by PennDOT to reduce the Route 8 corridor south of Franklin from four lanes to two lanes.
“To do something that would cut our legs out from under us is devastating,” said Tim Brooks, chairman of the commissioners. “We have real potential to grow and reducing that corridor would hamper all our efforts.”
This week, the commissioners sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf that asked him “to intervene” in any plan that would reduce a 10-mile stretch from Franklin to just outside Barkeyville from a four-lane expressway to a two-lane accessible highway.
The 15-month study, due for completion in April, will be the subject of a public meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday on possible changes to the highway. It will be held at the Franklin High School auditorium and is designed to gather public input.
The study was prompted by PennDOT’s review of highway projects, a listing that included anticipated repairs to the Route 8 corridor.
The estimated cost by PennDOT to upgrade and maintain the four-lane section is pegged at between $30 and $40 million over the next several years. Included in the maintenance aside from the highway itself are two bridges.
Opposition is growing
The move to consider reducing the Route 8 highway width is part of PennDOT’s overall and long-range planning strategy that encompasses numerous highways in the region.
First unveiled last fall, the potential change to the Route 8 four-lanes has drawn considerable consternation from area companies, elected officials, business-related agencies and others who contend it would hamper economic growth, create an obstacle for business expansion, thwart future investment in the area and more.
In a statement released by the commissioners, the key points against changing the lane width include:
– Route 8 provides Interstate 80 traffic access to the heart of Venango County, including points north like Titusville, Tionesta and Warren.
– Route 8 provides critical access to I-80 for regional freight generators.
– Route 8 directly links I-80 to important economic assets like the Venango Regional Airport and the Sandycreek Industrial Park.
– Venango County’s position as a central location within the region for business and freight traffic is compromised without strong connections to I-80 and Interstate 79.
– Route 8 provides a critical emergency evacuation route for Pennsylvania residents.
The county’s newly formed Economic Development Authority is strongly endorsing the county commissioners’ efforts to maintain the four-lanes.
“At a time when the county should be focusing its efforts on building the infrastructure necessary for business growth and retention, it instead finds itself fighting to keep the infrastructure it already has in place,” said Emily Lewis, executive director of the authority, in a statement associated with the letter to Wolf.
Addressing the issue
Brooks, Lewis and Jason Ruggiero, the county planning director, talked to the newspaper Friday about concerns they have should the highway stretch be reduced to two lanes.
On the issue of highway traffic volume, a key point of the study that notes daily Route 8 traffic at 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles a day is “much lower than typically seen on a divided four-lane highway”, Ruggiero faults that as a reason for possible lane reduction.
“They compare it to Route 19 at Waterford where a two-lane highway has 18,000 vehicles a day,” said the county planner. “They suggest four lanes (on Route 8) aren’t warranted because we have one-third of that traffic. Our argument, though, is that Route 8 gets much more freight traffic. And if you are stuck behind one of our many large trucks, you are stuck for the entire way, 16 miles from Franklin to I-80. So it is a different environment because it is a different use of the road.”
Ruggiero also noted any plan to reduce Route 8 is counter to what is happening elsewhere in the state.
“We’d be going in the opposite direction. Most municipalities are asking for highways to be built to move freight. Here we have a four-lane highway and there is the possibility it could be reduced,” he said.
There is also a move to persuade PennDOT to do more than maintain the existing four-lane highway. About half a dozen miles of two-lane highway make up the end part of Route 8 leading south to Barkeyville. That resulted from leaving the highway project, one that had been ballyhooed as a full four-lane expressway, unfinished years ago.
“It is a connectivity issue,” said Lewis. “We would love to see the remaining two lanes changed to four lanes. For the existing four lanes, it makes sense to keep it because it is already there.”
As for the estimates that it will cost between $30 and $40 million over the next several years to upgrade the four-lane Route 8 stretch, an amount that is prompting the consideration to reduce the highway, that is misleading, suggests Ruggiero.
“Not all that is savings,” he said. “Changing it to two lanes will mean new exit ramps and additional work and those have a cost. And, any savings they are talking about are down the road, not immediate.”
For Brooks, the prime concern is that cutting back the size of a major highway corridor into Venango County could derail future economic growth.
It was the same pitch made by dozens of local businesses who told Baker Engineering at a forum in late November that they are expanding and investing in their operations. A central factor in future growth, insisted many of them, is maintaining the Route 8 corridor as is.
“The future, yes, is unknown. But we fully believe we are starting to see improvement here. So out 30 years, what will this region look like? We believe it will look better. I think (maintaining the four-lane expressway) is a good investment for PennDOT because it will pay benefits as we increase our freight traffic. Our local businesses and our residents need that four-lane highway,” he said.
