Central Pennsylvania's Connector Highway to Harrisburg

If you have been on United States Routes 11-15, 15, or Pennsylvania's state highway 147 recently you know one thing. The roads are congested. It is not a surprise as this are the major ways to get to the state capital through the state, however, while it has been a boon to local businesses along the routes the congestion is tarting to negatively affect local residents in the area. The problem has been known for a while and a project called the Connector is planned to ease the congestion in the area. While local businesses opposed it at first, the attitude has since been changed as increasing travel delays to common destinations begin to hold everybody up.

While most people now agree that the Connector as it is called which will link Interstate to 180 to Harrisburg as was originally planned will benefit the area, it currently suffers from lack of funding. In the recent budget debate that shut the Pennsylvania state government down the Connector was at issue, although the disagreement was over public transportation funding which tends to largely benefit the states largest cities Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Many of the small towns that dominate the Keystone state do not have public transportation to speak of and the congressman of my district, Merle Phillips voted against the new budget because of that and in his view, unnecessary tax increases.

From my own travels down the highway not only is the route crowded - along with Route 15 during the day time, the route also goes through several small towns and the increased traffic along it especially in Northumberland endangers children who live along the route. Increased traffic on the Route will also cause the need for more frequent repairs on 147 and Route 15 which goes through Lewisburg.

In the meantime residents who may actually have business in the towns both highways go through must put up with longer delays and large trucks that must go through the area. Often the trucks travelling down 147 or Route 15 during the busier times of day. In the meantime, it looks like local residents will have to put up with scenes reminiscent of the rush hour in a much larger city for many years to come unless funding is found and construction actually starts. The residents may have to put up with the increased traffic for even longer than the anticipated ten years it will take to build the new highway.