Politics & Government

Engineers Will Revisit Ocean Spray Truck Traffic Plan

Engineers from Upper Macungie Township and Ocean Spray will re-examine projected truck traffic patterns expected from the company's operations.

Engineers from Upper Macungie Township and Ocean Spray agreed Wednesday night to revisit projected truck traffic patterns emanating from the bottling company's operations, which are expected to begin in early 2014.

And comments between a township official and an Ocean Spray representative got a little heated.

Ocean Spray representatives appeared before the Upper Macungie Planning Commission, following a request from township supervisors to explain expected traffic congestion on township roads.

Ocean Spray officials entered into a distribution agreement with NFI of Cherry Hill, N.J., last month to warehouse some of its product in Weisenberg Township.

Upper Macungie officials publicly said that Ocean Spray's Weisenberg warehouse agreement will create additional truck traffic congestion throughout the township, particularly at the intersection of Schantz Road and Route 100.

The debate between Planning Commission member Sam Ashmar, who is also a township supervisor, and Erich Fritz, Ocean Spray's vice president of manufacturing and engineering, became contentious at times.

Ashmar maintains that the Planning Commission was told Ocean Spray trucks would make a left turn onto Boulder and Industrial drives, travel down Industrial to Grim Road and Nestle Way and utilize warehouses in that direction.

"If the goal is to review the traffic and mitigate it, a new traffic study is where it has to start," Ashmar said. "There's a lot of negative traffic during the holiday season, especially with extra traffic from Amazon. Ocean Spray, in good faith, should give us a new traffic study."

Fritz balked at that suggestion, countering that he didn't have a commitment to mitigate anything.

"The agreement with NFI takes trucks off the road," Fritz said. "I suggest we get the engineers together, look at the past traffic studies, calibrate it and talk about it."

Fritz made a presentation to planners that illustrated numerous truck trips per day onto Schantz Road and Route 100. 

"I don't recall seeing that and that would have raised my eyebrows," Ashmar said. "I'm very concerned about [the intersection] of Schantz and Boulder [Drive] and how we're going to control that."

Scott Stenroos, of Keystone Consulting Engineers, said the original traffic study did not include trucks at the Schantz Road and Route 100 intersection, near the Wawa convenience store.

"Warehouse trips through Route 100 and Schantz Road were not identified in that study," Stenroos said, adding that projections for 2014 are 120 trucks trips per day, increasing to 180 trips in 2018.

The Ocean Spray bottling facility is being constructed on 44 acres along Boulder Drive and will sport a plant of 225,000 square feet.

The $110 million project, which has the backing of Gov. Tom Corbett's office, is expected to bring 165 jobs into the Lehigh Valley. Ocean Spray is moving its operations to Upper Macungie from Bordentown, N.J., which is near Trenton.

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