Fight for Freedom.

Freedom road that is. I am writing in an effort to shed some light on several problems on Freedom Road.

I have lived in Cranberry Township for more than 25 years and during that time everything has been a struggle between “The Township” and “The State” when it comes to Freedom Road. Every project was or is intended to make Freedom Road safer and for traffic to flow better.

While traffic may be flowing a bit better, it comes with a cost. Just over two years ago Freedom Road was resurfaced between Powel Road (near the county line) and Commonwealth drive (near the turnpike) and the work was very disappointing to say the least.

Both on the problems with the road itself, as well as the fallout property owners have to deal with when a government project is undertaken was significant.

Topsoil is striped and restorations are unheard of. When I brought this to the attention of the engineering department at Cranberry Township, they told me they were also disappointed at the final result as well, but offered no solution.

One of the biggest problems was that the contractor waited till after the lines were painted on the road before attempting to seal the cracks that result when a new lane of asphalt is laid down next to a previously laid down lane.

It’s called a “cold joint” and what they did, and are doing all over the state, is to spray a 6-foot-wide band of tar over the 1/8” joint in an attempt to seal the “cold joint” from retaining moisture during the winter when the water will expand and contract and break up the seam.

What they are doing to these cracks on our highway and byway is not working. This is also what they are doing the whole length of Route 79 as well as Route 19 as a result of a previously mistreated joints from deteriorating.

If this wasn’t bad enough, now there is a question over who is responsible for the, as I quote from a PennDot engineer, “base failure” at the intersection of Freedom and Parkwood Drive which resulted from the recent work on widening the intersection and adding a new turning lane.

I informed the township of this failure last October. I again brought this to the attention of the Engineering Department at the township in April only to find out there was nothing done regarding the problem.

As it turns out the state will now be responsible for the repair of this base failure on the most trafficked four-digit road in Western PA because the bond for the contractor had expired during the last year and now the contractor is off the hook.

If Cranberry Township would have acted on my concern last October (2018), the contractor would have had to repair the base failure.

Would somebody please help me in this matter. Freedom Road is a gateway to Cranberry, a very prominent area of Pennsylvania, and it should be handled with a bit more respect than it receives.

Richard Kelly, Cranberry Twp.