Pollocks Mill Bridge (PA) -- Note damaged bridge deck behind truck
Marcellus Shale truck safety summit proposed in Pennsylvania
From an Article by Emily Petsko, Washington PA Observer-Reporter, October 14, 2014
Photo: Pieces of a damaged section of Pollocks Mill Bridge in Jefferson Township (PA) fall away as an overweight tanker truck is extracted from it recently. Photo by Tara Kinsell / Observer-Reporter. Order a Print
Two local politicians are proposing a regional “truck safety summit” in which Marcellus Shale companies will be asked to review their traffic safety procedures.
State Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, and state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, said they want to open dialogue with the energy industry in response to a surge in constituent complaints about reckless truck drivers.
Snyder said common complaints involve speeding, failure to obey traffic signs and driving in the middle of the road. “I live here, so I’m seeing it, too,” Snyder said. “I am concerned, and I want the industry to do some things in regard to their subcontractors. I think there are some really easy things that can happen here that can stop some of this.”
Snyder said complaints escalated after the driver of a water tanker truck crossed the historic Pollocks Mill Bridge in Greene County September 28th, despite being four times the legal weight limit. The bridge collapsed as a result.
“They have to understand the monstrosity that they’re driving and the load that they’re carrying,” Snyder said. “A lot of Greene County roads aren’t made for this traffic.”
The truck’s driver told police he followed his global positioning system to the bridge, which concerned Solobay. “A GPS unit is a convenient way to find an out-of-the-way restaurant, but if the driver of a 10-ton truck is using it to find a safe way through a rural county, that’s a problem,” he said in news release.
Drilling companies typically hire subcontractors to drive trucks carrying water, sand and other supplies to and from well sites. But Solobay said he believes companies have some control over their subcontractors’ safety procedures. He said the most prominent drilling companies in the region are “willing and ready” to make suggested changes.
Snyder said previous meetings to discuss traffic issues with drilling companies were successful, but more needs to be done. “We know that drivers have been fired, contracts have been terminated and big fines have been paid,” she said in a news release. “But we need to focus on prevention, and that’s going to require a comprehensive look at the operations and regulations.”
Solobay and Snyder have already begun reaching out to industry representatives to schedule a meeting. They also are requesting input from state police and the state Department of Transportation.
“It looks like we have a lot of incidents involving individual drivers and independent contractors, but there is a bigger picture developing, and that’s what we want to look at,” Solobay said. “We’re asking everyone with vehicles on the road in the region to examine their procedures and help us find a solution that preserves both economic growth and public safety.”
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Comment – On PA Route 51 in Fayette County, truck traffic is intense; this is also the case in many of the other roads in Fayette, Greene and Washington Counties. In West Virginia, WV Routes 7 and 18 have experienced severe damage and are dangerous to auto drivers. The concentration of gas industry trucks also creates significant risks and dangers on US Route 50 between Clarksburg and Parkersburg as well as on US 250 between Fairmont and Moundsville, among others. Tanker truckers are transporting fresh water and wastewater (“residual waste”) while other trucks transport frack sand, frack chemicals, to say nothing of the transport of the drilling rigs, control systems, process tanks and pipelines. The speed of many of these trucks is excessive!
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What I would like to know, and is not addressed in the articles about this incident, is who will be responsible for the cost of constructing a new bridge, and the cost of the time/labor to extract that truck safely from the bridge.
These are the types of ‘costs’ that are not factored in to the cost of fracking. These are always costs to the taxpayers.