Question 1

There was a noise wall installed on the southbound section of route 1 past the high school. Why would there not be one installed along the Langhorne Manor Borough section? We are adjacent to the service road. There have been dozens of accidents between Bellevue and Station Avenue. One accident involved a car crashing through our fence into our backyard a year ago. Wouldn't a noise wall also protect homes from roadway accidents?

Sean Bergmaier · Accepted Answer

The preliminary design sound wall evaluation is currently under development as part of the environmental clearance process, the results of which we will publish as a part of the EA document when that is finalized. Even at that point, abatement consideration is still considered preliminary, and no commitments are made until we get to the final design portion of the project. Once the impacts have been identified in the corridor, the detailed abatement recommendations are still pending at that point.

Sound walls are not designed or intended to provide safety improvements. Decisions regarding sound walls will be based upon the Federal Highway and PennDOT’s warranted, feasible and reasonable process as outlined in their PennDOT publication 24.

Sound walls in a corridor are typically protected by a single face concrete barrier in front of them to keep people from hitting the noise wall. That by default becomes a safety measure with having a concrete barrier in front of the noise wall to keep traffic from hitting the wall or leaving the highway.

Question 2

There was a noise wall installed on the southbound section of route 1 past the high school. Why would there not be one installed along the Langhorne Manor Borough section? We are adjacent to the service road. There have been dozens of accidents between Bellevue and Station Avenue. One accident involved a car crashing through our fence into our backyard a year ago. Wouldn't a noise wall also protect homes from roadway accidents?

Sean Bergmaier · Accepted Answer

The preliminary design sound wall evaluation is currently under development as part of the environmental clearance process, the results of which we will publish as a part of the EA document when that is finalized. Even at that point, abatement consideration is still considered preliminary, and no commitments are made until we get to the final design portion of the project. Once the impacts have been identified in the corridor, the detailed abatement recommendations are still pending at that point.

Sound walls are not designed or intended to provide safety improvements. Decisions regarding sound walls will be based upon the Federal Highway and PennDOT’s warranted, feasible and reasonable process as outlined in their PennDOT publication 24.

Sound walls in a corridor are typically protected by a single face concrete barrier in front of them to keep people from hitting the noise wall. That by default becomes a safety measure with having a concrete barrier in front of the noise wall to keep traffic from hitting the wall or leaving the highway.