Concerns over Route 120 Truck Traffic
Increased Traffic Connected to Huling Branch Reclamation Project
RENOVO — Municipal officials have started to voice concern about the speed of truck traffic serving the $12.2 million mine reclamation project along the Leidy/Noyes Townships line.
Work began last September on the Department of Environmental Protection effort, the Huling Branch reclamation project covering some 100 acres, part of a plan to reduce acid mine drainage and eliminate safety concerns related to highwalls in the wilderness area.
But in recent weeks members of the public, including some township and borough officials, have taken note of the increased truck traffic transporting limestone material from Centre County through Lock Haven, up Route 120, through Renovo, past Shintown and Westport to the reclamation site.
Elected officials from Noyes Township and South Renovo have shared their concerns and one motorist told The Record she saw two empty trucks drive to Lock Haven, “passing cars, swerving across the yellow line, even when cars were coming at them,” going at a speed she estimated at over 80 miles an hour.
Some Renovo area residents have stopped at The Record’s Farwell office to complain about the speed of the traffic. A Record phone call to the project contractor, L.R. Costanzo Co., Inc of Scranton has not been returned, although a receptionist acknowledged she has been fielding calls of complaint.
Some Water St., Lock Haven residents had voiced concern about prospective increased traffic when the project was announced last year but Mayor Rick Vilello said this week he has not had any complaints expressed this year.
He did say the city plans to soon step up its speed enforcement program in the vicinity of Hanna Park where Route 120 reclamation site traffic flows into Lock Haven; the trucks then travel down Susquehanna Avenue, onto Water Street, south on Jay Street and onto Route 220 towards Centre County.
At the time of the project’s inception, Sproul State Forest District Forester Doug D’Amore had said as many as 40 to 50 large trucks a day could be traveling on roads to and from the job site.
The remediation effort will result in the reconstruction of about 8,500 feet of the Whiskey Run ATV trail. About 54 acres will be re-vegetated with 48,150 tree seedlings and an additional 47 acres will be re-vegetated with wildlife habitat grasses.
Huling Branch work also was to include backfilling of about 6,000 linear feet of dangerous highwall, 40- to 70-feet high, and one adjacent spoil area. The spoil material will be graded into the pits to return the surface mine site to its original contour.
The project was to use more than $756,000 in Growing Greener funding to implement a source remediation plan aimed at reducing acid mine drainage pollution originating from the site. The money was to be used to purchase 370,000 tons of alkaline material to neutralize highly acidic mine spoil, including about 15,000 tons of coal refuse material improperly placed within pit areas throughout the site.
In addition, about 137,000 tons of crop coal around the perimeter of the reclamation area will be removed, along with 17,500 tons of buried coal refuse along sections of the existing highwall.
The reclamation work is to be completed by Sept. 3, 2015.
