PennDOT's original proposal to truck fly ash from the Seward generating station involved Rt. 403 in making the trip north to the Mine #24 site in Pine Township where it would be mixed with acid rock from Centre County. The small one lane bridge in Dilltown along the way seemed to persuade the PennDOT people that maybe they needed to reconsider and find another route to do the dirty deed. So it was suggested that Route 56 be used through Armagh and eventually hook up with Route 964 toward Route 422 just south of Indiana. But Route 56 is already a "mini-hell" on earth as you will eventually see.

See shocking statistics at Oooodles & ooodles of trucks!

Pictures immediately following will show the route that would be travelled if in the future the acid rock/fly ash plan is still implemented for Pine Township in Indiana County. We begin this phase of the journey at Route 422 and then proceed south.

A Picture Is Worth 10,000 Words!

Upper Left: truck approaching on Rt. 954 which takes off toward Indiana from Rt. 56. The overpass is Rt. 422 -- it is about 10 miles or so to Strongstown going east.
Upper Right: trucks will travel up this ramp to get on to Rt. 422 and then really fly to the end of the 4 lanes, but will maybe cut their speed a tad as they merge into a 2 lane road!

Upper Left: some straight stretches here which provide the tempation to open it up just a hair or so!
Upper Right: a little slow coming up with a load of fly ash, but when you are on the down grade going empty...if we only had wings!

Upper Left: yes, even now there is traffic here including some trucks!
Upper Right: sitting here by this slight curve for a bit provided the chance to get rocked from turbulence created as the tri-axles whizzed by!

Upper Left: sometimes they're coming and going at this connection of Rt. 954 and Rt. 56!
Upper Right: it will get even more interesting when you have a bunch stacked up waiting to get through the stop sign!

Upper Left: in this part of the country it's up and down hills!
Upper Right: and if RNS, Services Inc. gets its way, what you see is very tame and slow compared to what will be!

Upper Left: but then you have those stretches where you can move it -- time is money, you know!
Upper Right: multiply that one many times over if hauling fly ash to the Mine #24 site is resumed in the future -- convoy anyone?

The quiet village of Brush Valley -- oooops! Only on rare occasions when the trucks aren't rumbling through -- if you think this doesn't disrupt things more than a smidgeon, just ask the residents of the Armagh area who live along Rt. 56 -- excessive (that is, way beyond reason) truck traffic in both directions, jake brakes rattling, excessive speed, fly ash dust constantly plus other debris -- and when it rains under these conditions, guess what? So, if fly ash hauling is resumed to the Mine #24 site in Pine Township as some are wanting to do, Brush Valley, look out -- your nightmare will really shift into high gear!

Upper Left: whoooeee, look at him go -- downgrade here you can really move it out!
Upper Right: now just repeat the above all over again going in the opposite direction!

Upper Left: most interesting place along the way is the United High School, right along the side of the road, plus the Elementary School on opposite of the road which is located a small distance back from the road -- good thing for the elementary kids!
Upper Right: as the boys move through the restricted speed zone, will the zone be really respected, or will it be like it is on Rt. 422 coming out of Ebensburg where there are 4 schools -- rare police presence translates into a school zone meaning absolutely nothing -- zilch -- ZERO!!!

Upper Left: here's where the fun begins as you approach Armagh -- a traffic light to allow traffic from Rt. 22 to exit on to Rt. 56, and then up ahead a 4 way stop sign intersection!
Upper Right: the character driving the tri-axle just ahead had been in the convenience store, and in spite of the fact that I had the right of way approaching the stop sign, he just wheeled out in front of me -- those are times in which you sometimes wish you had an Abrams M1 tank, and then you could just go ahead and take the right of way resulting in a sqashed tri-axle which would be good for nothing except to be put up for sale on eBay!

Upper Left: OK -- once you get through the stop sign and head toward Seward, you're in for adventure -- even life threatening sometimes!
Upper Right: it was mentioned that these tri-axles are as bad as rabbits in multiplying -- see it for yourself!

Upper Left: keep in mind, you not only have unreasonable truck traffic -- you have that ash stuff sifting out and blowing all over the place also!
Upper Right: and as Detective Columbo would say,"There's just one more thing!" -- make sure your brakes are in good working order -- if you come to an intersection, you never know when one of these guys will pull out right in front of you -- no respect for a stop sign and a while back, no respect for school bus red lights flashing either, as one character went flying by a stopped school bus -- well, you know, he probably had forgotten to put his brains in his head when he got up that morning -- but then, maybe he didn't have any to put into his head to start with -- and the few good guys that obey the laws and keep their speed within limits don't police the other 98 per cent which think they are the only ones on the road and make their own rules, except on those very rare occasions when the State Police may come around -- then we are all innocent little angels on our way to Sunday School singing, "This Little Light of Mine," with the words changed to "This Little Truck of Mine!"

Time for Some Shocking Statistics!

A local resident did some truck surveys with video to attest to the gravity of the problem the people along Rt. 56 between Armagh and Seward are experiencing each day. One of these was done on March 10, 2006 between the hours of 8:30 AM and 2:00 PM at a location about 1.5 miles south of Armagh on Rt. 56 going toward Seward. It was broken down by minutes in the way it was done. The videos graphically reveal the noise, dust, and speed of trucks. Here is a summary of the results which counts only tri-axles and tractor trailers -- other vehicles traveling at those times were not counted:

• 114 trucks between 8:30 AM and 8:59 AM
• 189 trucks between 9:00 AM and 9:47 AM
• 259 trucks between 10:00 AM and 10:59 AM
• 261 trucks between 11:00 AM and 11:59 AM
• 278 trucks between 12:00 PM and 12:59 PM
• 255 trucks between 1:00 PM and 1:59 PM

• Grand total in a 5 1/2 hour period was 1,356 trucks!!

Question to ponder -- how would you like to have this mess at your house each day of the week? And think how you would feel if the people who have the power to change it simply said, "If you don't like it, then move!" And you know how fast someone is going to snap up the chance to buy a house on this stretch of 56 and how they would be eager to pay a premium price to get it, right?

Take me back up to the beginning of the Rt. 56 Horror Story!

There you see the "spawning ground" of that stuff called fly ash -- PennDOT wanted to haul that stuff to the Mine #24 site in Pine Twp. and mix it with equal amounts of acid rock (pyrite) from Centre County. RNS Services, Inc. would have made millions of dollars in the process while citizens along Rts. 422, 56, and 403 plus those living in the vicinity of Mine #24 would experience a "mini-hell" on earth during the time of the "project" intended to cure the I-99 problem. What is totally unknown is what destruction will take place in the lives and health of citizens a couple of generations down the road in the future!

Independent professionals knowledgable in chemistry and testing procedures and who aren't influenced by lobbyists, politicians, or favored appointees to alter test results will give you the true story on how destructive fly ash is!

And there is the issue of hauling pyrite rock which when exposed to oxygen and water produces a delectable substance called sulfuric acid! Want to have a wild fantasy which can become a terrifying reality if they still try to shove the original plan on the people of Cambria and Indiana Counties -- when those trucks haul acid rock from Centre County and they run through rain storms, what happens when some of that water runs down along the edges of the tarps into the pyrite? And what is that stuff that runs out of the truck bed as it sloshes through the rain on its trip from Centre Co. to Pine Twp. in Indiana County? Do we have a law somewhere that says something about the hauling of hazardous materials? Or will it be in this case as sometimes happens, all people who have authority seem to be looking the other way?

Rodkey does it one more time, telling it like it is!

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T O P

Take me back to Acid Rock, Fly-ash, PennDOT, and DEP - A Deadly Mix in Any Man's Language!

For comments, complaints, or just plain axe-grinding, contact C. D. Harriger by clicking on Penelope, efficient mail hostess of Circuit Rider's Range, and she will set up the email form for you to fill out and send on its way