May 27, 2004 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

MENALLEN TWP. – Township Supervisor Joe Petrucci testified Wednesday that planned improvements to the Torchlight intersection, which comprises two intersections on Route 40, could be the most pressing highway safety project in Fayette County. Petrucci was the only person to offer testimony during a Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC) hearing at Menallen Elementary School to collect public comments on the draft 2005-2008 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the county.

The SPC will vote on a list of 800 projects from the 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties, for which it helps plan transportation and development projects, on June 30, according to SPC transportation planner Ken Flack.

SPC board members will receive a report of all testimony given or submitted by June 8 before it votes, Flack said.

If approved, the report and the list will be forwarded to federal transportation and environmental agencies for their review, which Congress will consider when it allocates funding for highway projects.

According to the county TIP list, the $1.2 million Torchlight intersection project is scheduled for 2006 using federal and state funds.

In 2005, the SPC is asking for $400,000 for right-of-way acquisition, $200,000 for the final design and $100,000 for utilities.

The federal government would provide $320,000 for rights of way, $160,000 for final design and $80,000 for utilities, and the state would pay the remaining amounts.

In 2006, $400,000 in federal and $100,000 in state money would be allocated for construction.

Petrucci said he wondered if the $500,000 earmarked for construction would be enough to alter the intersections and correct mine subsidence damage near the intersections.

Patrick B. Richter, a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation engineer, said he believed that $500,000 was enough for the entire project.

The project calls for moving the Canister Road intersection 600 feet west and relocating the Dearth Road intersection 400 to 450 feet east of their current locations on Route 40, Petrucci said. He said the township is willing to use Community Development Block Grant funds to assist PennDOT with the Canister Road project.

The intersections could be the most serious safety project on the county’s TIP list, he said.

“I know of one fatality due to that situation and numerous accidents,” Petrucci said.

The project has been dubbed the Torchlight intersection because the Peter’s Torchlight restaurant is in close proximity.

Eastbound motorists turning from Route 40 onto Canister Road and westbound drivers turning left on to Dearth Road have only 140 feet of sight distance, he said.

State regulations for driveways off Route 40 require 475 feet of sight distance for approval, he said.

Westbound drivers turning onto Dearth Road often pull into the restaurant parking lot and drive through the lot to get onto the road to avoid turning directly onto the road because their view of oncoming traffic is blocked by a hump in Route 40, Petrucci said.

People who have to wait for oncoming traffic on Route 40 to clear before turning into the lot, get rear-ended by westbound vehicles, he said.

Petrucci said the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department has to use a roundabout route to get to Menallen Elementary School because its trucks can’t safely pull out from Dearth Road onto Route 40.