Selinsgrove farmers concerned new CSVT road will not accommodate large vehicles

Marcia Moore, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·2 min read

Sep. 12—SELINSGROVE — Mike Heimbach test drove a massive combine and grain drill through a nearly completed roundabout on the Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation (CSVT) Project near the family farm in Monroe Township on Monday to demonstrate his concern about accessibility to their crops.

Several Pennsylvania Department of Transportation employees and Heimbach's attorney, Mark Silver, watched him maneuver the large vehicles on Mill Road, which is under construction as part of the southern section portion of the $900 million CSVT project.

While the vehicles were able to travel through the roundabout at a very slow pace, Silver noted, "This is an ideal circumstance with no other traffic."

"This is catching us by surprise," said Matt Beck, a PennDOT design project manager, of the concerns expressed.

At issue, Heimbach said, is the design of the two roundabouts on Mill Road that includes outer vertical curbing which will hinder large farm vehicles from easily traveling the road to the 1,800 acres of crops the family owns along Mill Road, in Kratzerville and Selinsgrove.

"We need to get our equipment on and off these roads," said Heimbach. "We have to somehow co-exist."

For at least four years, the Heimbachs and PennDOT officials have discussed the CSVT road design and "specifically asked for" a sloping or mountable curb rather than vertical curbing, Silver said.

PennDOT employees measured the Heimbach's larger farm vehicles in 2017. "This combine seems bigger than the one we measured," Beck said of the 17.5-foot wide vehicle Heimbach tested on the road Monday.

One roundabout is nearly complete — with vertical curbing — and construction of the second roundabout has not yet begun.

The vertical curbing is necessary for drainage and to slow traffic traveling through the roundabouts, Beck said, nixing any plans to swap it out for sloped curbing as requested by the Heimbachs.

David Wise, a PennDOT construction project manager, said the curbing that has been constructed cannot easily be replaced with mountable curbing.

"It's not just a matter of replacing the curb. It's all integral," he said of the attached pavement and anchors.