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Detour ahead: VFD hits the road to test response times
At least a dozen eastbound cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles whizzed by in the eastbound lanes, stealing precious response time from the fire rig, before one alert motorist stopped to yield the right of way.
Too bad the driver of a PT Cruiser that was coming up fast behind the stopped eastbound car wasn't paying close attention.
Just when it appeared a rear-end collision was imminent, the PT Cruiser's driver hit the brakes hard, laying down some 20 feet of rubber before stopping, tires smoking, inches from the stopped car in front of it.
"Saw that coming," said firefighter Brian Kuchar as he steered the Adamsburg and Community Volunteer Fire Department rescue engine across Route 30 east and onto Wendel Road. "Nobody pays attention."
The fire engine lost only a few seconds to the motorists who wouldn't stop to let it cross Route 30, but come next fall, contends Adamsburg Fire Chief Don Thoma, response times will be significantly slowed when detours to accommodate a $110 million turnpike road-widening project are implemented.
The widening of the toll road is tentatively slated to begin in the fall of 2006. It will add one lane in each direction of the turnpike between the Irwin and New Stanton interchanges.
Traffic will be detoured around five bridges during construction, including those on Wendel, Eiseman School, Madison, Glenn Fox and Route 136. Although all of the bridges won't be closed at the same time, the detours, Thoma said, will add significantly to his department's response times.
To illustrate how the Wendel Road bridge detour will impact response times, Thoma scheduled a drill last night that had three trucks leave the Adamsburg fire station at the same time.
The first truck traveled directly to the school as it normally would over the Wendel bridge, but the other two took detours. A fourth truck from the Straw Pump Volunteer Fire Department traveled a detour that has been proposed by the turnpike commission.
No one timed each truck's arrival at the school, but Kuchar's truck, which detoured along Arona Road and through the Greenridge housing development, arrived at least eight minutes after the first truck. The delay was long enough that a firefighter on the first truck, Joe Bagshaw, had enough time to change out of his firefighting gear and back into his street clothes before Kuchar pulled up to the school.
Total time elapsed between the arrival of the first truck, which did not take a detour, and the last one to travel an alternate route, was 25 minutes.
Thoma told some 200 Hempfield residents who turned out for the demonstration and an accompanying PowerPoint presentation that the delays during construction could be avoided if the turnpike commission would agree to build a temporary substation on the grounds of West Hempfield Elementary School. The commission has so far nixed the idea because of cost, but a representative is slated to meet with Thoma today to take another look at the fire department's concerns.
In the meantime, Thoma urged residents who attended last night's meeting to call, write or e-mail various elected representatives and the turnpike commission to voice their support for a temporary substation.
"We need you to make sure everybody understands that you are concerned," Thoma told the assembled crowd. "We need you, the people, to step up."
Turnpike officials could soon begin hearing from those residents.
One meeting attendee, Ruth Ale Prete, of Colonial Drive, Greenridge, said she intends to fire off a few e-mails, then have friends and relatives do the same. West Hempfield residents Kathi and Don Good, whose daughter lives on the Adamsburg side of Route 30, said they, too, will contact their representatives.
The Goods said that in addition to their concerns over how the detours will affect emergency-response times to their neighborhood, they worry about how the detours will delay their own response time to their daughter's house in an emergency.
"We could probably run there faster," said Kathi Good of the delay the detours will create.
Rich and Judy Gallo, of Wendel Road, said they aren't buying one reason the turnpike commission has given for nixing the idea -- cost.
"One thing that really irks me is how they talk about a money issue," Rich Gallo said. "If they can employ five people per every mile of turnpike, I'm sure they could come up with $100,000."
Thoma cited $100,000 as the approximate amount needed for a substation.
No one from the turnpike commission spoke at last night's meeting.
Elected officials who were on hand, including Hempfield Township supervisors, state Rep. Ted Harhai and state Sen. Bob Regola, all expressed support for the substation. Regola and Harhai vowed to continue to lobby the turnpike commission to commit funds to a substation.
"We're going to get them back to the table, even if we have to embarrass them to do it," Harhai said.
Thoma said residents who want more information, or lists of names and addresses of elected and turnpike officials, should visit www.adamsburgpafire.org .
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