At issue: Hill’s role in state road project

By AMY BRISSON

Speeding, smashed cars and short cuts were all on the table at last week’s meeting of the Chestnut Hill Community Association’s traffic, transportation and parking committee at Hiram Lodge. The discussion focused on what the community could do to address traffic problems using funds and resources from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Germantown Avenue improvement project .

The meeting began with Winston Road resident John Follo passing around grim pictures of his totaled car, which had been hit while parked on Winston last October by a drunk driver who was probably going 50 or 60 miles per hour. The next week, his parked rental car was destroyed by a speeding driver in the very same spot.

“I would consider it an out of control situation,” said Follo, explaining that there have been three more accidents within 30 yards of his house since October.

Committee chair Bob Previdi, who led the meeting, explained that traffic has been much busier on Winston, Willow Grove Avenue and Mermaid Lane because the recent closure of Cresheim Valley Drive taught drivers a new short-cut for passing through Chestnut Hill on their way in or out of the city.

Previdi, a CHCA board member and former transportation planner for the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City, spearheaded the effort behind  a Streets Department traffic study in April showing there were 14,000 cars a day using E. Willow Grove as an alternate route while Cresheim Valley Drive was closed, and that 85 percent of cars were speeding on Winston Road. Even though Cresheim Valley is now open, cars are still using Chestnut Hill residential streets as short-cuts whenever there is construction or closures on routes out of the city, such as Rt. 309. Things need to be done about the traffic, both for the long term and as an immediate fix, argued Previdi.

“Ultimately this is about safety. It’s about the quality of life in our community,” said Previdi. “We’ve given a wide swath of pavement on Germantown Ave to the cars, but we say we’re a pedestrian oriented community.”

Gerald Cope and Barry Esslinger of Cope Linder Architects presented an overview of their streetscape vision study, commissioned by the Chestnut Hill District, focusing on recommendations for the Winston Road and Germantown Avenue intersection. The study proposes that a portion of Winston Road be closed near the intersection to prevent cars from turning onto the road at high speeds. The proposal would also create more parking for the Mermaid Inn and space for tree and flower plantings, they said.

Previdi added that left hand turning lanes and “bump-outs” at crosswalks could help organize and direct safe traffic flow in the area, without losing parking or driving space. Bike lanes on Winston could also give the illusion of narrower lanes, which would slow traffic, while also making it easier for kids to reach the Water Tower Recreation Center.

Lawrence Link, Project Development Manager Engineer of PennDOT, and Harry Laspee, a consulting engineer from Pennoni Associates Inc, gave a short presentation on the PennDOT Germantown Avenue Improvement Project, and how that could be tied into desired changes at the Winston Road-Germantown Avenue intersection.

The PennDOT project focuses on general improvement and restoration along two sections of Germantown Avenue, between Ashmead Street and Church Lane in Germantown and Allens Lane and Mermaid Lane. The project includes completely reconstructing curbs, sidewalks and utilities and putting in new street trees and streetlights. The project also includes restoring the street’s granite Belgian blocks and replacing the smooth concrete around the trolley tracks with tinted stamped concrete paving, which Link and Laspee said would look better and be cheaper and easier to maintain than granite cobblestones. 

Around Winston Road and Mermaid Lane, PennDOT could pay for the closing of Winston Road, install new stop lights, re-lay cobblestones, and do other projects. The agency needs to know by the end of September or the beginning of October what the community wants, they said.

The construction will probably not begin until 2008, but they are currently working on preliminary designs so any new ideas need to go through the city’s approval system as quickly as possible.

With that fast approaching deadline in mind, many of the local residents at the meeting agreed that they wanted some sort of change. But what exactly should be done was a matter for discussion.

Several concerned residents of Mermaid Lane said they wanted a traffic count on their street as well, because of speeders and regular accidents. If the count proved high, a traffic light at the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Mermaid Lane could get approval from the Streets Department.

Cynthia Brey, a resident of Mermaid Lane, expressed her fear that the closing of Winston Road would direct speeding traffic down their street instead. Brey offered some alternative suggestions, such as making parts of Mermaid lane one way, making a one way lane on Winston instead of completely closing it, installing a “no turn on red” traffic light at Mermaid Lane, or placing more stop signs down the street.

Although Previdi thought tentatively that closing the end of Winston Road would not redirect traffic onto Mermaid Lane, he promised to bring Brey’s questions and concerns to engineers in the Streets Department for further analysis.

The end goal, it was generally agreed, should be to keep through traffic on major arteries like Cresheim Valley Drive, and not to simply redirect traffic onto other Chestnut Hill residential streets.

Another concern brought to Previdi’s attention was firefighter access to Winston Road. One audience member warned that he did not want to see the health or safety of anyone jeopardized by closing the road, and he thought that the fire station would not support the change. Both Previdi and Link assured the audience that the Streets Department would not allow any change that negatively impacted first responders.

“We would look at in two ways,” said Link. Besides how the project will affect emergency response after it is finished, he said, “one of the ways is during construction, you don’t want to delay the fireman or police…during construction Germantown Avenue will be kept open.”

It was agreed that the residents of Mermaid Lane and Winston Road would work together to support a plan to ease traffic on both streets and Previdi would talk with Streets Department engineers about possible consequences for Mermaid Lane if Winston Road is closed. After the results of a petition to gauge community support are known, the traffic committee will take their ideas to the CHCA board. If approved, the plans would go to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and on to Mayor Street. If the plan gets green lights all the way, it will then go into PennDOT’s design.

Members of the audience cautioned that it was ambitious to try to get everything done before the end of September, especially with no CHCA board meetings scheduled for August, but the attitude in the room was positive and energized.