A West Penn Township resident is fed up with vehicles passing on double yellow lines along an active stretch of roadway.

Township resident Larry Stival, of Summer Valley Road, told the board Monday morning that in the past three weeks, he’s noticed tri-axles, eighteen-wheelers, and motorcycles passing there along Route 895.

“The passing is ridiculous,” Stival said, requesting no-passing signs.

“The request to PennDOT falls on deaf ears.”

However, township police Chief Jim Bonner told Stival the problem is that “you cannot regulate signs on a state highway” because it has to come from the state.

Supervisor Tim Houser told Stival that he’s understood his frustration, and that every time the board has met with PennDOT’s District 5, it gets told “it doesn’t meet the criteria.”

“It is very frustrating when we ask to do this,” Houser said. “I don’t understand it, but that’s the common phrase we get; (that) it doesn’t meet the criteria.”

Stival said he’s all for anything that will help alleviate the problem.

He has filed a right-to-know request on the matter.

“(But) I still don’t think it’s fair for PennDOT to say “‘you don’t have the right to know’” even after he said a Right to Know request was filed.

Bonner said the biggest complaint in the township that he hears is speeding vehicles and traffic.

“We’re darned if we do, darned if we don’t,” Bonner said. We’re trying to do the best we can.

“We’re very aggressive,” and the minute they let up is when he said they’re going to have fatalities.

Prudenti then recommended that the board look to set up a meeting with PennDOT sometime after Jan. 1.

Stival said he believes that the more people who are aware of what’s going on, the better it is.

Constant issue

Despite complaints about speeding, the 55 mph speed limit along 895 has been deemed suitable by PennDOT.

Prudenti said at the board’s March morning meeting that the township received a letter from PennDOT about a 2019 study for the speed limit on Route 895.

“The posted speed limit of 55 mph is appropriate for the roadway and the Department is not in favor of any alterations,” the letter stated. “While the Department understands your concerns, we are not an enforcement agency.”

The letter stated that PennDOT recommends the township contact the local police department to express any concerns with speeding vehicles on Route 895.

“A Passing Zone Study is being started for your concern to add Do Not Pass Signs where there are double yellow lines toward the intersection of State Route 895 and 309,” the letter states. “If warranted, signs will be installed.”

PennDOT states in the letter that passing on the left is defined in Vehicle Code.

Bonner said at that time that while the roadway falls under PennDOT’s jurisdiction the police department monitors it.

Supervisor Glenn Hummel said at that time that the township feels it’s “hazardous, and there should be a double yellow line” all the way down.

In February, Stival asked supervisors if anything changed concerning the speed limit on Route 895.

Stival asked whether the township could get no passing signs, to which Prudenti said at that time the issue is that it isn’t a township road.

In April 2019, resident Gary Steigerwalt told the board he’d like to see the speed reduced on Route 895.

Datte said at that time there were two possibilities: If the homes are along a significant stretch, then the township is permitted to declare it a residential district; other than that, he said the township would need to conduct an engineering study.

Houser said then that he agreed with Steigerwalt that the speed limits on township roads should not be 55 mph.

The board announced earlier that month that a traffic study must be conducted in order for the speed limit to be reduced along Route 895.

Supervisors said the township had received a response from the state Department of Transportation that the township would have to conduct a traffic study for Route 895 and Summer Valley Road.

Nicole Bailey asked supervisors in May 2020 to have the speed limit reduced along that portion of 895.

The township had to tell PennDOT what speed it would like to see it reduced to.

Township secretary Katie Orlick previously said she requested 45 mph and a no passing zone from Route 309 to Dorset Road.

PennDOT said that speed limits are typically established based on recent crash history, as well as the 85th percentile speed, which is the speed at or below which 85 percent of the motorists are driving under normal roadway conditions during daylight hours.

Dairy Road

The board heard from Michael Jachowicz, who lives along Dairy Road.

“Dairy Road has become very dangerous,” Jachowicz said. “This has been a longtime problem.”

Jachowicz then questioned why the speed limit on the stretch of roadway by his house isn’t 35 mph.

Prudenti then asked if he township would be able to put up “no jake brake,” but Bonner said he believes the township would have to adopt an ordinance by resolution.

Prudenti then said if the township would be allowed to do this, to have township solicitor Paul J. Datte do it right away.

Jachowicz thanked the board for listening to him.

“They shouldn’t be doing that fast (on a back road),” Jachowicz said. “It’s at the point where it’s out of control.”

Speed limits

In October 2022, supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution to lower the speed limit to 25 mph on the section of Fort Franklin Drive between Blue Mountain Drive and the Schuylkill County line.

In June 2022, supervisors dropped the speed limit to 25 mph on Zions Stone Church Road.

That came after Datte in May cited a study that was conducted in 2001.

Datte said the vehicle code permits the establishment of a 25 mph speed limit in a residential district if the road is not a numbered traffic route (Zions Stone Church Road is not a numbered traffic route) and is functionally classified by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

He said the entire length of Zions Stone Church Road could be classified as a residential district, and a 25 mph speed limit could be established.

A resolution was needed to establish a residential district.