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How Dauphin County Has Turned a Small Surplus Into Major Infrastructure Improvements

February 8, 2018/in Insights-Financial, Insights-Local Government, Insights-Planning, Insights-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

This article about the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank is excerpted from the February 2018 issue of Pennsylvania County News magazine. It is provided courtesy of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) and is reprinted here with their permission. This is in no way an endorsement by CCAP of the products or services offered by HRG.

What would you do with an extra $350,000 per year in your county Liquid Fuels budget?

It sounds like a nice problem to have, doesn’t it?

That’s exactly the challenge Dauphin County faced six years ago as its aggressive bridge management program reached a very important milestone: The last load-posted, structurally deficient bridge in the county’s inventory was fully programmed to be replaced.

This video tells the story of the last structurally deficient bridge in Dauphin County. Once the county funded the replacement of this bridge, it had a surplus of Liquid Fuels money in its budget. They decided to use this surplus as seed money for an infrastructure bank that has funded more than a dozen roadway, traffic and bridge improvements throughout the county in just a few years. (Learn more about the county’s last structurally deficient bridge in this profile.)

For almost 30 years, the county had patiently and strategically planned the rehabilitation or replacement of 51 bridges. Close to 1/3 of its county-wide inventory had been structurally deficient at the time they embarked on this effort in 1984.

Now that hard work and determination was about to pay off. The county could drastically reduce its spending on bridge capital improvements by shifting from a replacement phase to a maintenance phase.

The county’s engineer, Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG), analyzed what investments would be necessary to proactively maintain the bridges and determined that the county would have an annual surplus of approximately $350,000 in Liquid Fuels funding beyond what was needed for maintenance expenses.

County commissioner Jeff Haste wanted to make sure the money was used wisely: “The county’s bridge management program had delivered tremendous value to our residents, drastically improving the safety and efficiency of our transportation system for drivers. We wanted to use this money to deliver even more value.”

County Commissioners Haste, Pries and Hartwick wanted to maximize the benefit of these surplus dollars for county residents. The infrastructure bank approach has allowed them to fund more than $11 million in improvements with an initial investment of $1 million.

Haste and his fellow commissioners, Mike Pries and George P. Hartwick, III, were thinking big, but regulatory requirements threatened to make the impact of this money small.

“Because of the forced distribution procedure associated with Liquid Fuels funding,” Haste explained, “the county had to come up with a use for this money or disburse it evenly to all 40 of our member municipalities.”

On average, each municipality would’ve received less than $10,000, which is too small a sum to do anything more significant that buy a little extra road salt for the winter.

Yet, even if the county used the entire $350,000 surplus itself, they wouldn’t be able to cover the cost of even one small capital improvement like a single-span bridge replacement (which typically costs between $500,000 to $1 million).

Haste, Pries and Hartwick wanted to have a larger impact, so they asked county staff to collaborate on a solution with the engineer who’d designed the successful bridge management program in the first place.

Together, they came up with an innovative program in which the county would use this annual Liquid Fuels surplus to dramatically reduce the cost of infrastructure improvements for local municipalities.

How the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank Works

The Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank offers loans to municipalities (or private sector companies) to design and construct local roadway, bridge and traffic improvements – at unbeatably low interest rates. Municipalities can borrow money for as little as 0.5% interest. (Private sector borrowers pay a 1% interest rate.)

As an added bonus, Dauphin County provides loan recipients with optional engineering design support. This is very beneficial to smaller municipalities who have never completed a large capital improvement project before and may not know how to navigate the complicated state and federal requirements these projects must meet. An experienced consultant can save these municipalities from costly and time-consuming mistakes and re-work.

But, if $350,000 wasn’t enough money for the county to complete one major capital improvement project on its own, how can it use that money to fund multiple projects by its municipalities?

The power of partnerships.

Dauphin County multiplies the value of its $350,000 investment by combining it with additional funding from Pennsylvania’s state infrastructure bank.

Essentially, the county uses its Liquid Fuels surplus to make it more affordable for municipalities and private sector organizations to borrow money from the state by paying a portion of their interest. Interest on Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank loans can vary, but it is currently 2.125% at the time this article is being written.

A municipality could borrow funds directly from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank at an interest rate of just over 2%, or it could borrow from Dauphin County, and the county would pay approximately 75% of the interest expenses.

The following diagram shows exactly how the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank funds its projects:

It is a self-renewing process. As municipalities or private sector organizations repay their loan to the county infrastructure bank, the county repays PennDOT. Once the debt is satisfied, the county has the ability to issue new loans to other municipalities or private sector companies.

For some municipalities, the cost savings provided by an infrastructure bank loan can be the difference between being able to move forward with a project at all or having to postpone it a few more years.

In the first three years of the infrastructure bank program, Dauphin County multiplied close to $1 million in Liquid Fuels funding into $11 million worth of improvements to the local transportation system: 7 bridges, one traffic signal, one streetscape, and one intersection improvement.

This streetscape project in Middletown Borough is one of the projects that has been funded by the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank. You can read more about the award-winning project and its potential economic benefit for the community in this article from The Authority.

“This is the kind of dramatic impact we were hoping to have,” says Pries, who oversees Dauphin County’s Community and Economic Development Department.

“The success of our bridge program and the creation of the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank has allowed us to help residents without the need to raise property taxes. Unlike many other parts of the country, our residents don’t have to worry about crumbling bridges and road networks.”

Park Boulevard Realignment and Fort Hunter Park Enhancements Honored as Premier Projects by Dauphin County

January 10, 2018/in Company News, News-Parks & Recreation, News-Transportation, News-Water Resources /by Judy Lincoln

Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG) is pleased to announce that two of our projects have been selected by Dauphin County in its annual Premier Projects award program.

Since its inception six years ago, the Dauphin County Premier Projects program has honored more than two dozen projects that promote smart growth and spark revitalization throughout the region. Among this year’s honorees, HRG provided engineering services for two of them: enhancements to Fort Hunter Park and realignment of Park Boulevard.

Park Boulevard

A broad range of local leaders from Derry Township, Dauphin County, and area businesses worked together on the realignment of Park Boulevard to support future economic development in Hershey. The new roadway provides several safety improvements:

It replaces a 60-year old bridge over Spring Creek, which was structurally deficient and weight-restricted.
It converts a narrow roadway beneath the Norfolk-Southern underpass from two-way traffic to one-way traffic. This reduces the potential for vehicular accidents and allows for the installation of a sidewalk that is segregated from through traffic.
It improves emergency response time by adding a roadway connection from northbound Park Boulevard. (Previously, first responders had to drive a circuitous route through several intersections to access this area. Now crews can reach the area 2-3 minutes faster.)
It provides a new shared-use sidewalk that will enhance safety for pedestrians traveling to Hershey’s attractions from downtown.
It adds a safe zone for people boarding and exiting buses at the Hershey Intermodal Transportation Center. This zone is physically protected from through-traffic.

Front Row: Chuck Emerick, Matt Weir, John Foley, Susan Cort, Justin Engle
Back Row: Chris Brown, Patrick O’Rourke, John Payne, Brian Emberg, Tom Mehaffie, III, Matt Lena, Lauren Zumbrun

Fort Hunter Park

Fort Hunter Park seamlessly blends new amenities with environmental protection and a celebration of the area’s history and wildlife. The enhanced park includes two new boat launches that provide access to Fishing Creek and the Susquehanna River, new pedestrian paths, new seating to enjoy the scenic views, and new outdoor gathering spaces to accommodate park festivals. It also includes expanded parking to make it easier for locals to access and enjoy these new park features.

To protect the scenic and tranquil environmental setting, engineers used innovative techniques to collect and treat stormwater like porous pavement. They also replaced two paved median areas with soil, stone and native plantings to retain and filter stormwater runoff while enhancing the appearance of the roadway. A new basin for collecting stormwater is designed to blend with the adjoining woodland edge, and herbaceous plantings and indigenous trees help to improve a local habitat area.

Signage in the enhanced habitat area describes local wildlife for park users, while other signs in the park inform visitors of past river activities such as Native American gatherings, early transportation, and coal reclamation.

Chad Gladfelter, Carl Dickson, John Hershey, Matt Bonanno, Steve Deck

ABOUT HRG

Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG) is a nationally ranked design firm providing civil engineering, surveying, and environmental services. The firm was founded in Harrisburg in 1962 and has grown to employ more than 200 people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. For more information, please visit the website at www.hrg-inc.com.

Duke Street Bridge Honored with Safety Award

September 1, 2017/in Company News, News-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

Wider bridge improves access for emergency vehicles and pedestrians while reducing the likelihood of car accidents

The Duke Street Bridge replacement has been honored with a Road & Bridge Safety Award from the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association, County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, and PennDOT.

Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. designed the project for Dauphin County, which improves safety for local residents in several ways:

It improves emergency access for residents who live near the bridge. The original Duke Street Bridge couldn’t carry vehicles weighing more than 3 tons, which meant most of the vehicles operated by the Hummelstown Borough Fire Company and Union Deposit Fire Company couldn’t use the bridge. The new bridge has no weight restrictions, and emergency vehicles can safely cross it (as shown in the attached photo).
It safely accommodates two lanes of traffic, whereas the original Duke Street Bridge was only wide enough for one lane of traffic at a time.
It makes it safer for drivers to turn onto South Hoernerstown Road from North Duke Street, thanks to increased intersection radii. Previously drivers of large vehicles turning right onto South Hoernerstown Road from Duke Street would cross into the opposing lane. Limited sight distance at this location meant that opposing traffic could not see these vehicles crossing over into their lane with optimum time to react. The new wider intersection will drastically reduce the likelihood of accidents at this location in the future.
It provides a new sidewalk. The previous Duke Street Bridge had no existing sidewalk; accordingly, pedestrians would often walk in the roadway lanes to cross from one municipality to the other. The new bridge includes a sidewalk that will enhance safety for pedestrians trying to access the United Water Trailhead and Swatara Creek Trail.

ABOUT HRG

Founded in 1962, HRG has grown to be a nationally ranked Top 500 Design Firm, providing civil engineering, surveying and environmental services to public and private sector clients. The 200-person employee-owned firm currently has office locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. For more information, please visit the website at www.hrg-inc.com.

Park Boulevard Realignment in Hershey Honored with Safety Award

May 12, 2017/in Company News, News – Government, News-Municipal, News-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

Representatives of Derry Township in Dauphin County accept the first-place roadway award in the Road and Bridge Safety Improvement Awards at the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors’ (PSATS) 95th Annual Educational Conference April 23-26 in Hershey. Sponsored by PSATS, the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association (PHIA), and the state Department of Transportation, the award recognizes townships for their extensive contributions to making roads and bridges safer. Participating in the presentation are, from left, PennDOT Director of Planning and Research Laine Heltebridle; Matthew Lena, P.E., transportation team leader, Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc.; Derry Township Chairman John Foley; PHIA Managing Director Jason Wagner; and PSATS Executive Board Member Bill Hawk. (Photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors.)

The realignment of Park Boulevard has been honored with a Road & Bridge Safety Award from the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association, Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, and PennDOT. The award was presented to Derry Township officials at the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors Conference at the Hershey Lodge on April 24, 2017.

Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. designed the project for Derry Township and devised a creative funding strategy that expedited the project schedule.

A broad range of local leaders from Derry Township, Dauphin County, and area businesses worked together on this project to support future economic development in Hershey. The new roadway provides several safety improvements:

It replaces a 60-year old bridge over Spring Creek, which was structurally deficient and weight-restricted.
It converts a narrow roadway beneath the Norfolk-Southern underpass from two-way traffic to one-way traffic. (The roadway is not wide enough for two opposing lanes of traffic to safely pass each other, so switching to one-way traffic will prevent vehicle conflicts.)
It improves emergency response time by adding a roadway connection from northbound Park Boulevard. (Previously, first responders had to drive a circuitous route through several intersections to access this area. Now crews can reach the area 2-3 minutes faster.)
It provides a new sidewalk that will enhance safety for pedestrians traveling to Hershey’s attractions from downtown.
It adds a safe zone for people boarding and exiting buses at the Hershey Intermodal Transportation Center. This zone is physically protected from through-traffic.

The realigned Park Boulevard was completed and opened to traffic in the fall of 2016. View a slideshow of project photos below.

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Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank Honored with Governor’s Award

April 12, 2017/in Company News, News-Financial, News-Municipal, News-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG) is pleased to announce that our client Dauphin County received a Governor’s Award for Local Government Excellence for the infrastructure bank program we helped them create. The award for “innovative community or government initiative” was presented to Dauphin County officials at the Governor’s Residence on April 12, 2017. Commissioners George Hartwick, Jeff Haste, and Mike Pries attended the ceremony with George Connor, the executive director of Dauphin County’s Department of Community and Economic Development and the administrator of the infrastructure bank program.

HRG worked with PennDOT and Dauphin County officials to develop this program, which provides a creative solution to one of local government’s biggest challenges: successfully maintaining and replacing infrastructure. It leverages the county’s Liquid Fuels funding and the underutilized Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank program to stretch the value of local government dollars. In its first three years, Dauphin County turned an annual investment of $325,000 in Liquid Fuels money into 10 projects worth $11 million: 7 bridges, 1 streetscape, 1 intersection improvement, and 1 traffic signal improvement.

While people on both sides of the aisle agree that infrastructure improvements are badly needed, the debate often stalls over where the money will come from to pay for these improvements. The Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank shows that new revenue is not necessarily needed to begin addressing these problems; applying existing revenue in new ways can help us make significant progress. By combining several sources of funding – each of which would’ve been inadequate to meet the infrastructure need alone – the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank has accomplished so much more for the county’s residents than these funding sources could’ve done individually.

Brian Emberg is an engineer who helped develop this program. He began working with the county in the 1980s on a similarly forward-thinking program that helped the county eliminate significant structural deficiency of its bridges. (In 1984, one-third of the county’s bridges were structurally deficient, but today the county has no load-posted, structurally deficient bridges at all, thanks to a bridge management system they designed with HRG.)

Emberg says, “Dauphin County’s officials are dedicated public servants and true visionaries. They continually challenge the status quo to deliver the best service to their constituents for the highest return on public tax dollars. This program provides a great example to other counties on how the seemingly impossible task of addressing our infrastructure can be solved.”

Indeed, HRG is currently in talks with counties around the state about implementing similar infrastructure bank programs of their own. Though Dauphin County uses its program for transportation improvements, the program can be used to fund any type of infrastructure, depending on the sources of money used to capitalize the loan program. For more information about the program, read our white paper on county infrastrastructure banks.

Funded by the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank: Middletown Borough Streetscape
Funded by the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank: Londonderry Township culvert

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Duke Street Illustrates an Infrastructure Funding Solution

September 21, 2016/in Insights-Financial, Insights-Local Government, Insights-Municipal, Insights-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

Dauphin County eliminated all of its load-posted, structurally deficient bridges with an ambitious approach to infrastructure funding.
Now the county is using the money it’s saved to fund a new infrastructure program benefiting its municipalities and private sector.
The program has already funded 10 projects worth $11 million with just a $1 million investment from the county.
Read on to learn more about Dauphin County’s innovative infrastructure funding solution.

We begin this story in its final chapter, celebrating the construction of the Duke Street Bridge in Hummelstown Borough and South Hanover Township.

It’s a story that plays out all over America every day: a local government struggling to address aging, deteriorating infrastructure.

But Dauphin County’s story is different. With HRG’s help, they’ve found a solution to the infrastructure funding problem and are turning the page to a new, brighter future: a future they have the freedom to author themselves.

How did they get here? Asset management and capital improvement planning.

Ambitious Capital Improvement Program Eliminates Structurally Deficient Bridges

In 1984, 1/3 of Dauphin County’s bridges were structurally deficient. It’s the kind of problem many local governments – under tight budget constraints – might find insurmountable. But Dauphin County knew that solving big problems is not done in one swift motion; it’s accomplished piece-by-piece.

Accordingly, HRG designed a long-term asset management and capital improvement planning program for them. It has several components:

Inspecting and assessing the condition of each county-owned bridge every two years.
Identifying the appropriate type and timing of maintenance, restoration or replacement measures.
Creating (and updating) a Bridge Improvement Plan that prioritizes these measures over a 10-year period. (Projects are ranked not just on the bridge’s structural condition but also its importance to the local transportation network [as determined by the amount of traffic it carries, whether it’s located on EMS or school bus routes, etc.])
Using this data to seek funding.
Leveraging this funding to complete projects over time, addressing the most urgent needs first and steadily whittling that list of structural deficiencies down to nothing.

By taking a proactive approach like this (vs a reactive approach that addresses bridges only after they’ve failed), Dauphin County extends the life of its bridges, maximizing their usefulness while minimizing their life cycle cost.

They also position themselves well for outside funding. A good capital improvement plan includes plenty of data about how many people rely on a piece of infrastructure and how they would be impacted if it were to fail or be taken out of service. This information is very persuasive to funding agencies, who want to make sure their investment provides the biggest possible benefit to the community.

But agencies also want to be sure the money they invest will produce results: that the project will successfully transition from concept to construction. A well-designed capital improvement plan does just that. It shows you have identified exactly what is required to get a project built (including the timelines for permits and approvals) and that you know the full scope and cost of what you want to accomplish. It also shows you have allocated money in advance to get the job done.

This level of detail reassures funding agencies that the money they invest will be used wisely and the project will be completed successfully. (See our article on Positioning Yourself for Grant Funding for more detail.)

In fact, funding agencies are increasingly requiring data like this in their application process, so a capital improvement plan is quickly transforming from a nice-to-have item into a necessary part of your infrastructure approach. (Our article on successfully applying for Pennsylvania Act 89 transportation funding explains this in more detail.)

Many pages have been written about Dauphin County’s success with this strategy over the years. (It has been featured in Pennsylvania County News and Road and Bridges magazine among others.) In addition, the county has won several awards for projects accomplished using this approach: two Road and Bridge Safety Awards, a National Timber Bridge Award, and a historic preservation award from the PHMC.

But the successful completion of Duke Street in 2017 is not just an ending; it’s the beginning of a whole new story for Dauphin County. With no more load-posted, structurally deficient bridges to address, the county transitioned its focus from replacement to maintenance. This has enabled county officials to create a new program for funding infrastructure, using a portion of the Liquid Fuels funds it used to need for bridge replacements.

Savings Are Used to Encourage Economic Growth With a New Infrastructure Funding Program for Municipalities and the Private Sector

The Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank combines this Liquid Fuels funding with additional money from PennDOT’s Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank to offer loans to county municipalities, businesses, and non-profits at unbeatably low interest rates (as low as 0.5%) for the construction of roads and bridges under their jurisdiction. Over the past three years, the county has turned a $1 million investment into 10 projects worth $11 million.

Again, Dauphin County has its eye on the long view, using its funds to promote economic development throughout its municipalities.

As their example illustrates, the solution to funding our infrastructure is not a short story; it’s a novel with many chapters and a carefully planned arc. In fact, it’s a story that never ends – with the construction of Duke Street serving as the beginning of a new chapter: the Dauphin County Infrastructure Bank. This program will, in turn, fund many new stories with new characters: municipalities and private developers rewriting the future of their communities one roadway or bridge at a time.

Are you ready to become the author of your community’s future?

UPDATE: Dauphin County celebrated a ribbon-cutting for the completed bridge in the spring of 2017. Learn more about the bridge in the video below

Brian Emberg, P.E., has more than 30 years of experience and has designed hundreds of infrastructure projects. His understanding of project management and keen sense of business practices has lead him to his current position as Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at HRG. He is responsible for the management and oversight of the firm’s technical service groups, sales and marketing, client management, and the maintenance and execution of quality management plans.

Van Voorhis Trailhead Featured in West Virginia Executive Magazine

September 12, 2016/in Company News, News-Environmental, News-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

HRG’s Morgantown Office Manager Samer Petro wrote an article about our Van Voorhis Trailhead project for the Summer 2016 issue of West Virginia Executive magazine. The article is shared here with their permission and is also available in the online edition of their magazine.

Visit the Van Voorhis Trailhead on a sunny weekend afternoon, and you will find it packed with locals of all ages. College students, families and seniors alike use the trailhead to experience nature and keep fit, and each one sees it as a valuable recreational asset in the community.

As they admire the greenery along the trail, it’s probably hard for them to imagine that the site used to be the home of a manufacturing facility with potential environmental contaminants, but just three years ago, that’s exactly what it was.

The location of the Van Voorhis Trailhead is the former site of the Quality Glass manufacturing facility, which operated there from the 1930s until the late 1980s. For years the site sat vacant, as former manufacturing facilities often do, since potential owners feared environmental liabilities associated with its previous use.

Monongalia County Commission officials recognized the site’s potential for redevelopment that could benefit the community, and they commissioned an environmental assessment to begin the process of clearing it for new construction. According to the report they commissioned, arsenic, lead and benzo(a)pyrene were among the chemicals present.

In 2012, the Monongalia County Commission used an Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Cleanup Grant to remediate the site by placing a clay soil cap over the property and covering it with new top soil. They then agreed to deed restrictions that would prevent anyone from breaching the cap and potentially releasing contaminants. The deed also restricted withdrawing groundwater from the site for any purpose except monitoring and remediation.

With the remediated brownfield area cleared for redevelopment, the Monongalia County Commission began seeking an organization to redevelop the property, and the Mon River Trails Conservancy approached them with a vision of a new trailhead that would link the community to the Mon River Rail-Trail. This 48-mile trail links urban and rural communities in Marion, Monongalia and Preston counties and provides an outlet for walking, cycling, running, jogging and cross-country skiing to its inhabitants. Eight miles of the trail are paved, allowing for inline skating as an additional use.

To make the trailhead truly useful for guests, the Mon River Trails Conservancy wanted to expand parking on the site and add restroom facilities. It sounds simple enough, but due to the site’s former use and its location within a flood plain, engineers had to accommodate numerous environmental constraints. In designing the site, they needed to balance the needs to locate the restroom facility outside the flood plain and provide accessibility for those with disabilities while also siting the facilities in a way that avoided contact with contaminated material. They also had to locate the restroom facility to take advantage of the prevailing wind on site because the Mon River Trails Conservancy wanted to construct what is known as a sweet smelling toilet at the trailhead as an environmentally friendly, sustainable restroom facility. This waterless restroom technology, which was originally developed by the U.S. Forest Service, eliminates the odor typically associated with traditional outdoor restroom facilities when properly sited and vented.

The Van Voorhis Trailhead now has a parking lot that can accommodate up to 32 cars, including several handicap-accessible parking spaces; connecting pathways; landscaping; a trail map kiosk and a sweet smelling toilet facility for rail-trail users.

“This work has transformed a degraded, abandoned property into a valuable, useable site for trail access,” says Ella Belling, Mon River Trails Conservancy’s executive director. “It has not only had a positive impact on reducing public exposure to contaminants through the remediation process but has allowed for new community investments that will soon also include a canoe and kayak launch for the Upper Mon Water Trail.”

The Van Voorhis Trailhead project was designed by Morgantown-based civil engineering firm Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. and was partially funded by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s Recreational Trails Program, as administered by the West Virginia Department of Transportation’s Division of Highways. Other contributing partners include project contractor AllStar Ecology, LLC; the Town of Star City; the Monongalia County Commission; the North Central Brownfield Center; the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the Mon River Trails Conservancy.

What Do Flashing Yellow Signals Mean For Your Municipality?

August 2, 2016/in Insights-Local Government, Insights-Municipal, Insights-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

A new flashing yellow signal has been installed in the Harrisburg area.

It’s the first in Pennsylvania, but flashing yellow signals have been implemented throughout the country.

Studies show they improve safety and reduce left-turn crashes. They can also keep traffic moving more efficiently.

Read on to learn more about their benefits and how much it would cost to convert a traffic signal to this new technology.

Have you seen the new flashing yellow arrow traffic signals?

PennDOT recently unveiled Pennsylvania’s first one in Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County at the intersection of Route 15 and Rossmoyne Road (shown above).

Over the next several months, PennDOT will monitor this intersection to see if the flashing yellow arrow helps to reduce accidents at this location. If it does, these signals will likely be deployed throughout the state.

How does a flashing yellow arrow work?

Historically, drivers making a left turn have had the right-of-way when the traffic light showed them a green arrow. There is no opposing traffic during a green arrow light, so drivers making a left turn don’t have to worry about other cars entering the intersection as they turn.

When a green circle is displayed, however, drivers can only make a left turn if there is no traffic coming from opposing directions. Drivers must first check for opposing traffic and then turn if the roadway is clear.

Under this new system, the flashing yellow arrow will replace the green circle. When a flashing yellow is displayed, drivers will be able to make a left turn, but they must first yield to any oncoming traffic.

Graphic excerpted from PennDOT’s Flashing Yellow Arrow Fact Sheet

Why is the flashing yellow beneficial?

Drivers intuitively associate yellow with caution, so they are more likely to understand that they can only turn if there is no opposing traffic than they are with a solid green circle (which our brains associate with the direction to Go.)

In fact, a study by the Federal Highway Administration has shown them to reduce left-turn accidents by as much as 20%. This is one of the reasons the Route 15/Rossmoyne Road intersection was selected for the first flashing yellow signal in the state. More than 80% of the accidents at this intersection have involved left-turn movements (37 in the last four years).

In addition to improving safety, flashing yellow arrows can keep traffic moving more efficiently by providing more opportunities for left turns to occur. At intersections that previously went from green arrow to solid yellow, drivers will have an additional phase for left-turning movements. This, in turn, reduces delay and can eliminate complaints municipalities sometimes receive about frequently backed-up intersections.

Will municipalities be required to convert their traffic signals to this new flashing yellow arrow format?

No, there is no requirement for municipalities to implement flashing yellow signals at this time. Right now, PennDOT is testing the technology and seeing if it provides similar benefits in Pennsylvania to what is has provided elsewhere.

How much would it cost to convert municipal traffic signals to this new format?

In order to follow the new flashing yellow format, municipalities would only have to change their signal heads, not the mast arms. The new flashing yellow signal in Lower Allen Township cost $6,000 to install, but costs vary, depending on the existing signal operation and the number of directions that the arrow is being installed.

This number does not include engineering fees, which cover the cost of traffic counts, analysis, and a permit update, and can range between $4,000 – $6,000.

All told, a municipality can expect to pay between $8,000 – $14,000 for both construction and engineering fees associated with the implementation of a flashing yellow traffic signal.

For flashing yellow arrows to reduce accidents, as intended, drivers must understand what they mean. Therefore, PennDOT has undertaken an extensive public education effort. You can view a video that explains how the signals work and read a fact sheet about them on PennDOT’s website.

For any questions you might have about how a flashing yellow arrow might benefit your community or what implementation would entail, contact Darren Myer, HRG’s transportation manager for Western PA, or Eric Stump, our transportation manager for Central PA.

Darren Myer, P.E., PTOE , has more than 16 years of experience in roadway and traffic engineering. He serves as traffic engineer for multiple townships and municipalities within Western Pennsylvania. His areas of expertise include traffic studies, signalization, roadway design, and the review of traffic impact studies and land development plans.

Eric Stump, P.E., PTOE , has 14 years of experience and serves as the Traffic Team Leader for HRG’s Eastern Region. His experience includes preparing traffic impact studies for developments, reviewing traffic impact studies for municipalities, preparing traffic signal permit and construction plans, developing coordination programs for traffic signals in a system, and preparing PennDOT Highway Occupancy Permit applications.

Unionville Road Honored with Road & Bridge Safety Award

April 27, 2016/in Company News, News-Municipal, News-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

_{photo courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors}

Left to Right: PSATS First Vice President Shirl Barnhart, PHIA Managing Director Jason Wagner, Cranberry Township Chairman Dick Hadley, Cranberry Township project engineer Kelly Maurer, project engineer Jeff Mikesic of Herbert, Rowland, & Grubic, Inc., PennDOT Deputy Secretary for Planning James Ritzman, president of the Springfield Manor Homeowners Association Steve Nalepa, and Cranberry Township Manager of Streets and Properties Bob Howland.

Cranberry Township was honored with a 2016 Road and Bridge Safety Award for the recently completed Unionville Road Reconstruction project. Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG) designed this project for Cranberry Township (Butler County), and Youngblood Paving was the project contractor.

The Road and Bridge Safety Award winners were announced at the annual Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors conference on April 19. Winners are selected annually by the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors, and PennDOT. Projects are chosen based on their improvement to public safety and their benefit to the local community and its economy.

Prior to this project, Unionville Road had been the site of numerous accidents. Frequently, drivers were traveling too fast and colliding with objects such as utility poles and guiderail. Cranberry Township moved quickly to improve safety by realigning the roadway to remove a dangerous curve, widening it, and correcting drainage issues. HRG designed the project in just eight weeks, so that the project could be bid and constructed before the end of the year. There have been no reported accidents at this site since the improvements were constructed, and the township has received positive feedback from its residents on the initiative.

Cranberry Township manager Jerry Andree is proud of the project’s success and says, “Thanks to the support of our residents, we’ve been able to take a very proactive approach to maintaining and improving township roadways. This project has greatly enhanced the safety of drivers in our community, and that is the greatest reward of all.”

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ABOUT HERBERT, ROWLAND & GRUBIC, INC.

Originally founded in 1962, HRG has grown to be a nationally ranked Top 500 Design Firm, providing civil engineering, surveying and environmental services to public and private sector clients. The 200-person employee-owned firm currently has office locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. For more information, please visit our website at www.hrg-inc.com.

HRG Honored as Employer of the Year by Women’s Transportation Seminar

February 16, 2016/in Company News, News-Transportation /by Judy Lincoln

The Central Pennsylvania chapter of WTS has named Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. (HRG) its 2016 Employer of the Year.

WTS (or Women’s Transportation Seminar) is an international organization that promotes the advancement of women in the transportation industry. Each year, its local chapters recognize employers who enhance the transportation industry through a commitment to excellence and quality, have an outstanding record of affirmative action in hiring and promotions, support continuing education, and encourage women students to enter the transportation field by providing internship opportunities.

HRG Vice President Andrew Kenworthy accepted the award at a ceremony at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg on Wednesday, February 10, 2016.

“HRG is proud of this honor,” Kenworthy says. “Women contribute so much to our company’s success and play a vital role in the transportation industry. Engineers must solve complex challenges every day, and we believe a diverse workforce is crucial to the creative thinking this field requires.”