Resident: Tanker trucks speeding on busy highway

A West Penn Township resident is concerned that tanker trucks drive too fast along a dangerous highway.

Resident Allison McArdle told the board of supervisors Monday morning that the trucks have been “speeding” and “driving very aggressively.”

McArdle said the trucks have been speeding between Route 309 and Fort Franklin Road, especially during the evening and nighttime hours.

“They’re not going 25 miles per hour at all,” McArdle said. “It’s been going on for quite some time.”

McArdle noted that it’s not all the truckers who are speeding.

Board Chairman Tony Prudenti said he would like to have the township secretary write letters to the trucking companies that are driving the tanker trucks on Blue Mountain Drive.

Additionally, Prudenti said the township will try to have more of a police presence in that vicinity at night.

Supervisor Tim Houser told McArdle supervisors are doing what they can.

“We’re looking at things to try to address the problem,” Houser said.

However, Houser noted the township can’t have police officers at that location at all hours.

“What’s the perfect answer; I don’t know,” Houser said.

Supervisors said speed bumps could be an option to address the problem.

In May, Prudenti said his solution to get truck traffic off the township’s roads was to negotiate a water extraction and road agreement with Land, and suggested that at Land’s expense, he run a pipeline out onto a state road.