ProLogis Parkway intersection to remain unchanged in Lower Nazareth Township

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

The manager of Lower Nazareth Township says an intersection drivers call confusing will stay that way.

Westbound motorists on ProLogis Parkway can turn left or right or go straight when they reach a traffic light at Route 248. But going straight leads to a dead end.


Also, some drivers use the through lane as a second left-turn lane.


Drivers complained in Somebody Do Something at lehighvalleylive.com that heavy traffic creates difficulties for those who follow the rules.

Township Manager Timm Tenges said the municipality will look into barricades or road closure signs.

"We'll look at things to help improve the situation the best we can," he said.


Tenges said Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials discussed the intersection but plan no changes.


PennDOT spokesman Ron Young said Thursday that changing the intersection is not up to PennDOT because it was designed and built by ProLogis contractors. Changes are up to the traffic signal owner, the township, he said.

He said the township can make a written request to the department to change the traffic signal, which would issue a permit to let the township make the change.


Colonial Regional Police Department has jurisdiction over drivers who use the through lane to turn, he added.


Tenges said ProLogis Parkway, built five years ago, was meant to someday lead to a development at the dead end.


Chicago-based developer First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. in September received conditional use approval of a sketch plan for two warehouses.

“This was a major undertaking. Many years were spent on that intersection,” Tenges said. “This is no half-baked idea.”

Other plans have also been on the books for the land near the dead end.

The municipality signed off on former plans for the site in May 2002, when Virginia-based Higgins Development Partners proposed a warehouse, convenience market, bank and fast food restaurant. Plans ceased and Higgins sold the land in 2007 to First Industrial.

First Industrial in 2008 proposed a 700,000-square-foot warehouse, a 120-room hotel, a 38-lane bowling alley, an 80-seat fast food restaurant and a 5,400-square-feet sit-down restaurant. But the plan was tabled.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth/index.ssf/2011/11/prologis_parkway_intersection.html