We deserve more info for road disruptions

Posted 11/25/15

One of the great innovations of Chestnut Hill’s retail corridor was the introduction of parking lots. The Chestnut Hill Parking Foundation was created in 1953 to lease and improve all the lots in …

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We deserve more info for road disruptions

Posted

Arnie.11

One of the great innovations of Chestnut Hill’s retail corridor was the introduction of parking lots. The Chestnut Hill Parking Foundation was created in 1953 to lease and improve all the lots in upper Chestnut Hill. The idea showed a great deal of forethought from local leaders of the time, like Lloyd Wells, who knew that the best way to nourish a retail district was to provide plenty of places for shoppers to park.

Chestnut Hill is no different from anywhere else in this respect. We are a nation of cars, drivers and roads. No matter how wonderfully walkable Chestnut Hill is, it must cater to the car. And largely, though some still grouse about the availability of parking and the relatively recent introduction of pay-to-park kiosks in those very same parking foundation lots, there is a great deal of parking on the Hill.

In recent weeks and months, however, Chestnut Hill has been suffering from a car problem of a different kind – the kind involving cars that aren’t parked, but rather are passing through the neighborhood. And it’s a problem that is a little more difficult to solve.

Today, as I write this column, there are at least three major road construction projects going on in Chestnut Hill. There’s the nearly year-long water department work at Benezet Street, the reconstruction of the Willow Grove Avenue bridge and a newer project at St Martins Lane and Highland Avenue.

At that final location last week, prominent Hill resident Robert Peck was struck by a car on his way to catch a train at Highland Station in order to reach his job downtown at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Peck was hospitalized, and we hear he’s recovering, but the accident underscores the real impact these long road projects have on the neighborhood. Without proper planning, even a small change in traffic patterns here in Chestnut Hill can cause chaos.

Earlier this month, water department workers, without any real warning to the public, closed Seminole Street between Highland and Chestnut Hill avenues. Because of the ongoing closure of the Willow Grove Avenue bridge, all northbound traffic in West Chestnut Hill was forced into a bottleneck along West Highland Ave. For several days while Seminole was closed, lines of cars stretched west from the intersection of Highland and Germantown, well past the Highland fire station.

It’s clear that Chestnut Hill really can’t handle so many road projects. Better coordination is needed.

The Chestnut Hill Community Association said it planned on meeting with the Philadelphia Water Department about its work at Highland and St. Martins to discuss the problems, with Peck’s accident underscoring the need for the department to do a better job managing what witnesses called a completely chaotic situation.

And in the future, we’ll reiterate to the Water Department that it can do a better job of communicating with the neighborhood via the CHCA and the Local. Better communication would go a long way in helping residents and others commute through the neighborhood safely.

-- Pete Mazzaccaro

opinion