Route 93: it's all downhill from here

Route 93 is a 41-mile stretch of road that starts at the intersection of Route 209 in the borough of Nesquehoning, goes through other sections of Carbon County and then into Luzerne before ending in Columbia County.

The 2-mile section from the top of Broad Mountain to the Route 209 intersection has caught the attention of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials. According to PennDOT spokesman Ron Young, in the next month or two, PennDOT will set up detour signs alerting drivers to a tractor-trailer ban of vehicles with standard 102-inch-wide trailers. Trucks making local deliveries will not be affected by the ban.

Originally, the truck ban was to involve both southbound and northbound traffic, according to Young, but state officials complained that there is no need for a northbound detour, and, after negotiations, PennDOT has agreed.

Among the officials who asked PennDOT to take another look at its original proposal were state Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon; state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Carbon; and state Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Luzerne. CAN DO, a private, nonprofit industrial/economic development corporation serving the Greater Hazleton area, also recommended the change, Young said.

Southbound trucks will be required to take Route 309 south to Route 54 east at Hometown, then 209 east through Nesquehoning. The ban also will also affect truck travel on Route 424, known as the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce Beltway, which intersects with Route 93.

Last year, there were three tractor-trailer crashes in three days because truckers did not heed the warning signs to stop, shift into a lower gear and not exceed a 30 mph speed limit. As recently as last Friday, a tractor-trailer was damaged in Nesquehoning after the driver said his brakes failed while coming down the Broad Mountain, so he used the emergency truck pull-off.

Local residents have been complaining about this situation for years, fearful that people are going to get killed or that a truck loaded with dangerous cargo will cause an unimaginable calamity in Nesquehoning. There is a runaway truck ramp, which does help to some degree.

After a meeting of local and state officials and residents last spring, PennDOT increased the number and size of warning signs posted on Route 93 as an interim step until the detour is put into place. PennDOT said between 70 and 80 signs were either upgraded or added - some of them much larger than their predecessors. Trucking companies and businesses, which rely on truckers for their livelihood are, of course, not happy with the prospects of lost revenue.

Trucking companies also are grousing that they will have additional travel costs since trucks are taking a longer, more circuitous route to get to Route 209 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

At least one Carbon County official is not a big fan of the detour either and considers it an unnecessary inconvenience because of the actions of incompetent and unsafe drivers. During the debate last year, Carbon County Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard, a former truck driver himself, said truckers need to know how to drive their vehicles properly on steep grades. He said if the truckers can't read or don't read the signs, it's immaterial how many signs are erected.

State officials agree that some truckers have brought on this inconvenience themselves by not obeying the sensible rules that have been in place for the public's and their safety.

The crashes last year all took place in Nesquehoning on consecutive days between March 31 and April 2. None of the three truckers came to a stop to shift into a lower gear, according to police reports.

On March 31, a truck carrying new Chrysler product vehicles went out of control and crashed, spilling its load onto an embankment. The next day, a truck lost control at the bottom of Broad Mountain and smashed into a shed at the intersection of Route 209. On April 2, a trucker lost control and tried to use the runaway truck ramp, but the ramp didn't contain the truck, which rammed into trees that stopped it from going over an embankment.

It's been nearly a year since these three truck crashes occurred, and action that had been promised by now is finally taking shape. PennDOT spokesman Young said the advisory signs needed before the detour takes effect were ordered and are in the process of being made.

The 9 percent grade on this stretch of the Broad Mountain is a potential killer, and we are grateful that permanent action is finally being taken to ensure the motoring public's safety and the safety of the property-owners who live near this dangerous highway.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com