It’s a classic case of good news and bad news.

The good news is that we are in the midst of an economic upsurge, particularly in the Lehigh Valley, but it is spilling over into Carbon and Monroe counties, too. The bad news is that along with this development, truck traffic has begun to clog area roads.

The number of mega warehouse facilities in Lehigh and Northampton counties has exploded in the past five years, and surrounding counties are concerned that this sprawl will be coming their way sooner than later.

Cheap land and weak zoning laws have conspired to turn what was once acres of farmland as far as the eye could see into a sea of warehouses surrounded by acres of macadam, and the boom has not even reached its peak, according to planning officials.

The just-released Lehigh Valley Transportation Freight Study includes an area encompassing Route 248 at the Northampton-Carbon line in Lehigh Township on the north, Route 512 on the east, Route 145 on the west and Route 22 on the south. While Carbon and Schuylkill may seem isolated from these developments, their residents who do any kind of traveling for either business or pleasure are not. Going on vacation? Getting to the Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, will not be the romp down routes 248 and 987 (Airport Road) that it once was.

Commuting will take more time because of greatly increased truck traffic, construction delays, road-widening projects and other factors.

The study details the arrival of massive warehousing facilities around the airport and adjoining roads with more yet to come. The granddaddy of them all is the FedEx facility adjoining airport property, which is the company’s largest facility in the United States.

This includes an 800,000-square-foot facility, with expansion plans to 1.1 million square feet, along with two additional warehouses for a total of 2.4 million square feet.

To the north in Allen Township, which borders Lehigh Township, the Jaindl Watson Land Co. has proposed building another 2.4 million square feet of warehousing space.

A 1.2 million-square-foot Walmart fulfillment center is located in the Lehigh Valley Industrial Park near Routes 22 and 512.

Amazon has two major fulfillment centers — one in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, and the other in Palmer Township, Northampton County. The two employ more than 3,400 people.

Local officials also have approved plans for Century Commerce Plaza, which will add 1.65 million square feet for three proposed buildings, and then there is the Imperial Realty Group, which received approval Aug. 16 to subdivide the property at the Route 329-Airport Road intersection in East Allen Township with one of the lots to contain a 245,000-square-foot warehouse.

The arrival of these freight-generating uses has enormous implications, the study concludes. The companies involved have pledged up to $40 million to help pay for some of the roads and other infrastructure that will be needed to accommodate these enormous facilities.

Many of the roads that surround these operations are two-lane state highways, and a few are so narrow and treacherous that huge rigs are being banned from using them, but these prohibitions are, in some cases, being ignored, causing dangerous situations for motorists. Among these arteries, Cherryville Road in Lehigh Township has been recently been closed to truck traffic by the township supervisors.

These major developments have made the red-hot Lehigh Valley “one of the fastest growing freight markets in the world,” the study says.

The study presents a dozen recommendations about how officials might deal with the warehousing and traffic challenges. Among them are specific new or widening of existing roads and highways, noise reduction, even creating a Transportation Development District or a Transportation Impact District to help fund projects to lessen the impact on arterial roads near these facilities.

This warehouse boom and other factors have fueled a housing boom in the Lehigh Valley, which is now spilling into Carbon County, whose housing is much more affordable. This trend was described in Kristine Porter’s recent story in the Times News.

In it, she quotes Justin Porembo, chief executive officer of Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors, as saying, “We’re happy to see a robust Carbon County market.”

The number of houses with pending sales in Carbon has gone up nearly 22% this year; closed sales have increased by 17%.

Officials in Carbon’s rural townships contiguous to Northampton County will need to pay close attention to the issues surrounding these developments and begin planning for the spillover that is sure to come. When it comes, it could come as a tidal wave, just as it has in the Lehigh Valley, so beware and prepare.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com