Lower Nazareth Signs Off on Werner Road Study

The Lower Nazareth Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12 agreed to help pay for an engineering and traffic study for Werner Road, which was the scene of a landscape hit-and-run in June.

On Dec. 7, the Upper Nazareth Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion to split the cost and authorize the engineer for both townships, Al Kortze, to move forward with the study.

The decisions ended five months of limbo for homeowners who say Werner Road is plagued by oversized trucks trying to maneuver sharp turns.

According to a Werner Road homeowner, some truck drivers heading toward East Allen Township via Newburg Road are getting lost. Others, meanwhile, are using Werner Road because they can't maneuver the sharp right-turn swing from Gun Club Road. 

"[Werner Road] enters from Newburg Road and tractor trailers can’t navigate that turn without destroying landscaping," he explained at the Dec. 7 meeting in Upper Nazareth. "My kid was almost hit by a truck. So was my wife who was walking our dogs."

The landscaping incident the resident referred to occurred June 8.

A Michigan truck driver admitted to Colonial Regional Police that he ran over landscaping with his tractor trailer but continued driving down the road -- with a rock and a 55-gallon plastic barrel lodged underneath.

Colonial Regional police followed the drag marks from the barrel and rock down Newburg to a truck terminal on Chrisphalt Drive -- almost two miles from where the incident originated (Werner Road).

At the terminal, police located a driver trying to dislodge the barrel from under his trailer. The rock came loose on Newburg after breaking into pieces and damaging the road, according to police.

Kortze said Lower Nazareth was willing to post a "No Trucks Allowed" sign on its side of Werner Road -- only if Upper Nazareth follows suit. And now all of the ducks -- or trucks -- are in a row.