As it planned its annual Herb & Garden Faire for this weekend, Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum in Manheim Township had no way of knowing it would coincide with a major highway closure expected to displace more than 97,000 vehicles per day, sending many of them on a detour right past the museum and prompting area officials to warn travelers of traffic backups.
But that’s exactly what museum personnel face. Route 272 is one of the detours for cars rerouted by a planned two-plus-day road closure at Lancaster County’s busiest highway junction – the Route 30/222 interchange.
With vendors booked months in advance, and plants grown specifically for the occasion, the museum will forge ahead with the event, advising attendees to seek alternate routes, according to Mike Emery, acting site administrator for the museum.
“We’ve had challenges before – mostly weather related. We’re just looking at this as another challenge for the event,” he said.
This weekend from Friday at 9 p.m. until Monday at 5 a.m., Route 30 will be closed in both directions at the Route 30/222 interchange in Manheim Township so crews can remove a bridge over Route 30. The ramps from Route 30 east to Route 222 north and south will also be closed. Work is weather permitting, and May 17 to 20 is the backup date.
Delays and congestion are expected along detour routes in Manheim Township and Lancaster city, warns the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
The average daily traffic for the closed section of Route 30 ranges between 97,000 and 130,000 vehicles per day. A 2015 PennDOT traffic study determined the busiest time for weekend traffic on Route 30 was between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and the single busiest hour was between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Local police departments expect the traffic will also affect other local roads, as drivers follow GPS directions looking for the fastest route.
“Plan alternate routes. Leave early. If there is any way to just avoid that area for the weekend, I would do that,” said Sgt. Barry Waltz, public information officer for Manheim Township Police Department.
The bridge that is set for removal was formerly part of the ramp from Route 222 south to Route 30 east, and passes over both directions of Route 30. The ramp was recently rerouted onto the parallel bridge used by the Route 30 east-Route 222 north ramp.
After the bridge removal is complete, PennDOT will begin replacing the old bridge with a wider, two-lane span, part of an ongoing $72 million upgrade of the Route 30/222 interchange. Scheduled to be completed in 2027, the project will add an additional lane to each exit ramp at the interchange, and widen Route 222 to six lanes from the interchange to a point one mile north, near Landis Valley Road. The project is designed to improve a traffic bottleneck state officials say has worsened due to an increase in Lancaster County’s population. Traffic on Route 30 near the interchange has increased by 78% since 2002, when PennDOT widened it to six lanes.
PennDOT announced this weekend’s closure on April 26. Since then it has been running digital message boards in Lancaster, York and Harrisburg warning drivers.
According to the state Department of Transportation, the removal requires fully closing Route 30 in order to take apart the bridge deck, beams, and pillars. This weekend was chosen in part so the closure can be completed before Memorial Day, according to an email from PennDOT spokesman Dave Thompson.
“There is no perfect time to close this busy interchange,” Thompson wrote.
Preparations underway
Route 30 east will be closed for 2 miles, from the Lititz Pike/Oregon Pike exit to the New Holland Avenue/New Holland Pike exit. The detour route will use Lititz Pike, North Duke Street and East Chestnut Street. The detour for the Route 30 east-Route 222 north ramp will use Oregon Pike.
Route 30 west will be closed for .5 miles between the Route 222 north exit and the Route 222 south on-ramp. The detour route will use Route 222 north, Oregon Pike, and Route 222 south.
The detour for the Route 222 south-Route 30 east ramp will use Route 30 west, Lititz Pike, North Duke Street and East Chestnut Street.
Lancaster city plans to adjust the timing of traffic lights on North Duke and East Chestnut streets to accommodate the increase in traffic.
Thompson wrote that state police will be posted at the Route 30 road closures, and not otherwise engaged in traffic control. That leaves the task of patrolling the detours largely to local police.
Manheim Township Police Department will have one or two additional officers on duty throughout the weekend to respond to traffic and crashes along the detour.
Waltz said traffic volumes should be the same throughout the weekend, with some added traffic Sunday afternoon and evening as families return home from Mother’s Day celebrations. He said many drivers just passing through the area will be unaware of the detour in advance.
“If they’re traveling through, they’re not checking the news for every area they’re driving through,” He said.
The City of Lancaster Bureau of Police does not have any additional officers working this weekend, but officers on duty will respond to crashes or traffic issues, according to Sgt. Todd Grager of the police bureau’s community engagement unit.
Grager said he expects detoured drivers will take a variety of routes through the city, making it difficult to anticipate exactly where traffic issues will occur.
“With technology today, people are not necessarily going to use the designated detour,” he said.
Transportation disruptions
Mother’s Day weekend is also the time for an annual transportation event in Lancaster County, but it appears there will be no direct impact on that event due to the Route 30 closure.
The annual Make A Wish Mother’s Day Truck Convoy begins with a carnival at 9 a.m. Sunday and ends with the actual convoy between 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. It does not use routes 222 or 30 or the planned detours, but the organization is advising participants to leave early so they arrive on time to take part in the event, which raises money for Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, Delaware, Susquehanna Valley. The organization fulfills the wishes of children with critical illnesses.
“Part of our communication to all drivers and wish families has been to leave extra time when traveling, but it doesn’t affect the route at all,” said Michelle Ruel, director of marketing and communications at the regional Make-A-Wish organization.
Red Rose Transit is advising riders of delays on some of its bus routes on Saturday in particular. It plans to run additional buses in an effort to mitigate delays, according to Executive Director Greg Downing. Five bus routes use North Duke Street. East Chestnut Street is the primary exit for buses leaving Queen
Street station. It also has buses that run on Lititz Pike and Oregon Pike.
“We’re doing that in anticipation of buses being backed up,” Downing said of the additional buses.
Some businesses are looking at the detour as an opportunity. Stubby’s Bar and Grille’s Manheim Township location is on Route 272 north, one of the detour routes. Co-owner Claude Bradley said it’s impossible to predict how it will affect business but said he is hopeful that people stuck in traffic will decide to stop in to the restaurant and wait it out.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Bradley said. “We’ll take it as it comes.”
