Penn State is showing its support by declaring May 2011 as Bicycle Awareness Month.  Additionally the proclamation states that Penn State joins CRBC and the Centre Region Council of Governments in its pursuit of Bicycle Friendly Community designation.

Penn_State_Proclamation_001.pdf

We’re pleased to report that PennDOT has announced plans to mitigate (that is, eliminate) the rumble strips on the PA Bike Routes throughout Centre County. The link below will take you to a map (Adobe PDF format) of the planned construction.

gis1201_bicycle_rumble_centre.pdf

Here’s the post made to the CRBC listserv by V.P. Chuck Anderson:

This morning [March 2, 2010]  Paul [Rito], Trish [Meek] and I had a conference call with PennDOT. PennDOT briefed us on the timeline and proposed method for repairing the improperly installed rumble strips. We had serious safety concerns over PnnDOT’s first repair proposal, so they came up with a new proposal which is much better.
Here are the details:

Routes to be fixed this year
PennDOT will repair affected portions of state bike routes G and V this season. Places where 4¹ of paving extends outside of the rumble strips will not be changed since they are in accordance with PennDOT standards for edge line rumble strips. PennDOT asked which sections stre the highest priority, and we said 192 and 45 since they get the greatest bike use. PennDOT has created a map of the areas to be repaired and we will have that up on the CRBC website soon. PennDOT is also preparing a map of all rumble strips in our area and that map will also be posted to the CRBC website.

Repair method
1) Rumble strips will be removed by milling a 2 foot wide by 1.5-2 inch deep groove in the asphalt
2) Groove will be filled with a fine-grained asphalt and rolled to match the height of the surrounding pavement
3) Seam between new and old asphalt will be sealed to prevent water intrusion

Timeline
1) Road paving season in these parts starts in the summer
2) The repairs will be put out to bid in May-June and a contractor will be hired to do the work
3) We should start seeing action on the road by mid-summer and the work will be completed by the end of October
4) We will receive updates, including heads up on when road work will be effecting roads, as the process moves forward

No doubt many of you find the timing of this plan unsatisfactory.  It certainly does not fit with the time estimate given to us last fall, but that estimate was not realistic. The magnitude of the problem from a financial and technical standpoint is as great as it is for us riding the roads. The repair as proposed will make up a significant portion of this year¹s maintenance budget for our area.  I think we are looking at a significant response from PennDOT on the issue, not a best case scenario, but there are precious few of those these days when state government finances are involved.