Speed bumps remain in East Washington – for now
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Speed humps used to slow traffic on several East Washington streets, including South Wade Avenue, will remain for now.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
A speed bump on South Wade Avenue in East Washington
A speed bump on South Wade Avenue in East Washington.
East Washington officials missed a state deadline that required the borough to remove speed bumps from several streets or lose some state money starting next year.
The state Department of Transportation gave the borough 30 days from a Dec. 12 meeting between an agency official and members of the borough government to take out seven speed bumps installed in mid-2017 on South Wade, Wilmont and Christman avenues and Thayer and Harrison streets to slow motorists down in those areas.
The speed bumps were still on the streets Monday, days after the deadline.
PennDOT spokesman Jay Ofsanik said his agency hasn’t “received anything from them saying they did or did not take them off.” A PennDOT municipal services specialist will verify whether the bumps are still there and start the process of cutting off funds for those sections, “assuming they haven’t removed them,” Ofsanik added.
“Our only concern is it doesn’t meet the engineering standards for the speed of the roadway,” he said.
The borough’s full allotment of liquid fuels money, which can be used for things like road maintenance and repairs, was more than $58,000 in 2018.
Ofsanik said the agency will remove the segments of road in question from the list of streets, which will translate into a loss of about $2,000 yearly.
The cutoff for whether streets are eligible for the liquid fuels money was about two weeks ago, so Ofsanik said the borough won’t actually lose liquid fuels money until 2020.
“The borough at this time hasn’t decided to do anything,” said borough police Chief David Bradley. He said the borough can still notify PennDOT if officials do decide to remove the speed bumps.
For him, the question comes down to a simple cost-benefit analysis.
“Is the loss of liquid fuel money worth the expense that we’ve paid for them, and also worth the results that the current speed bumps have provided?” Bradley said.
He said that even if the borough decides to remove the devices after the start of next year, “we could at any time get that money back,” prorated from when officials do so.
Borough council members acknowledged PennDOT’s directive during a meeting last week, but made no decision.
Council President Matt Boice couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.