Roaring Spring Borough Acts on Road Complaints

After North Main Street in Roaring Spring Borough was reopened after a summer of reconstruction, borough officials began receiving complaints about the ride quality of the new road, mainly several dips along the road.

Taking citizen concerns seriously, borough engineer Shawn Ritchey of Keller Engineers, Borough Manager Lisa Peel, and Maintenance Supervisor Wyatt Simington drove the road to investigate the complaints.

According to Ritchey, the trio concluded that there is a dip in the joint on the northbound side, a dip in the lane adjacent to an existing inlet just south of an entrance to the papermill on the southbound side, and slight dips at each manhole in the northbound lanes.

Ritchey said a bump in the northbound approach near the coffee shop was caused by defects in the existing pavement, making the transition between the new and old pavement rough.

New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co. officials, the company that did the paving, met with borough officials, and offered to mill out and pave an additional area immediately adjacent to the new pavement in order to smooth it out. New Enterprise officials said the work would be done at no cost to the borough.

Ritchey said the dips people feel when driving over the manholes are because they are set slightly lower than the pavement to avoid issues with plows, and because the manholes are located in a vehicle’s wheel path, the dips are more noticeable when driving over them. Ritchey said attempting to fix the dips near the manhole would result in less durable pavement.