PennDOT gets tough on gas companies

TOWANDA - The state Department of Transportation is hiring three more inspectors for Bradford County to address the damage on state roads caused by heavy truck traffic and has warned gas drilling companies this week that they will need to deploy all resources necessary to keep state roads passable and safe or else they will have their road permits pulled, a state Department of Transportation official said at a meeting Wednesday in Towanda.

State Department of Transportation officials met Wednesday in Montoursville with representatives from gas drilling companies operating in the area and told them they will need to deploy whatever resources it takes to repair the state routes they are using in Bradford and other counties and keep them safe and passable, or they will have their permits to use the roads revoked, PennDOT Maintenance Services Manager Brian J. Toseki said at a meeting in Towanda of the Bradford County Gas Advisory Committee.

"If they need to have a road crew on every road every day (repairing the road), then that's what they'll have to do," Toseki said the Bradford County Gas Advisory Committee meeting.

The issue of road problems was the main topic of discussion at the meeting of the Gas Advisory Committee, which was attended by the three Bradford County commissioners, representatives from Sen. Gene Yaw's and Rep. Tina Pickett's offices, Chesapeake Energy Corp. officials, Toseki, and a several township supervisors.

Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith opened the meeting, saying that there are "a lot of boiling infrastructure issues" with the roads in the county, such as people not getting mail delivered and the issue of "making sure emergency vehicles can travel on some of these roads."

To address the damage caused by heavy truck traffic on state routes in Bradford County, PennDOT has been posting weight limits on the roads and then requiring companies whose vehicles exceed the weight limit to post a bond in order to use the road. The bond is used to repair the road if the company damages the road.

Two years ago, there were 30 state routes in Bradford County that were posted with weight limits, Toseki said.

Today, there are more than 130 state routes in the county that are posted with weight limits, he said. A total of 320 miles of state routes in Bradford County now have weight limits posted on them, he said.

Delivery trucks, school buses, and trucks making fuel deliveries to local homes are exempt from the weight restrictions.

Toseki said it was after the gas industry began operating in the area that PennDOT began having significant problems with damage to posted roads in Bradford and Tioga counties.

The gas industry "kind of caused some of these issues" on the posted roads, he said.

PennDOT is hiring three more inspectors for Bradford County "who will do nothing but inspect posted and bonded roads" in Bradford County to make sure that the roads are repaired and are kept safe and passable, Toseki said.

To address increased costs of maintaining its post-and-bond program, including purchasing signs and administering the program, PennDOT will begin charging companies for inspections on posted roads, effective April 1, Toseki said.

Local residents who find problems on state routes that are caused by heavy truck traffic should report them by calling PennDOT at 1-800-FIX-ROAD, Toseki said.

To report problems caused by heavy truck traffic on township roads, residents should first try to contact their township supervisors, Toseki said.

If they are unsuccessful in reaching their township supervisors, they can call 1-800-FIX-ROAD, and PennDOT will relay the complaint to the appropriate township officials, he said.

Mike Narcavage, who works as a government specialist for Chesapeake Energy, said Chesapeake has hired 16 contractors to work on repairing roads in Bradford County. Those contractors have approximately 22 crews working in the county on road repairs for Chesapeake, he said.

"They are constantly fixing the roads" for Chesapeake, he said.

"We've got every piece of equipment and every contractor we can find" repairing the roads, he said, adding that the contractors have to meet Chesapeake's standards.

However, county commissioner Smith said after the meeting that he has been told there are not enough contractors available to do the work and not enough local quarries to supply the material to repair the roads.

"I've been informed that they (gas drilling companies) are struggling to find contractors ... at this point," he said.

Brad Wittrock, a field superintendent for Chesapeake, said he believed problems with the roads will improve in the coming weeks.

"I think we've probably seen the worst of it," he said.

McLinko agreed that the roads will improve in the coming weeks because normally the weather becomes dryer. However, he said the dryer weather will cause a dust problem on the roads used by the trucks.

Upgrades

Narcavage also said that Chesapeake met with PennDOT officials earlier this week to discuss its plan to upgrade nine state routes in Bradford County, beyond what is required by the state.

Under PennDOT's post-and-bond regulations, Chesapeake is only required to bring the nine state routes back to the condition they were in before the company started using them, said Brad Wittrock, a field superintendent for Chesapeake.

But Wittrock said improvements that Chesapeake are proposing would go beyond what the state requires.

"What we proposing are upgrades to the roads," Wittrock said.

He said that PennDOT was "happy" with Chesapeake's plans for the upgrades.

Chesapeake will provide PennDOT with engineering and design work as soon as possible for the upgrades, which will affect 30 miles of road, he said.

The upgrades will begin as soon as PennDOT can review and approve the engineering and design work, he said.

Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko said he has arranged for Sen. Yaw and state representatives Pickett and Matt Baker to tour damaged roads in Bradford County and speak to township supervisors about the road problems.

He said it is important for them to see the problems first-hand.

McLinko also said he has talked to supervisors from Tuscarora, Towanda and Terry townships who are happy with the road maintenance agreements they have with gas drilling companies and the repair work that has been arranged by gas drilling companies for those roads.

Toseki also said he expected that local plants that make hot-mix asphalt, which is used to pave roads, to open earlier this year, due to the large demand for the material for local road repairs.

"I believe they will open in early April this year," which is several weeks earlier than normal, Toseki said.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.