In an early session prior to its regular meeting on July 2, Hanover Council discussed options available to the township in the event a FedEx Hub is established in neighboring Allen Township.

International shipping company FedEx proposed the construction of a large warehouse hub which is expected to draw heavy traffic into the township, especially on Route 22, Airport Road, Race Street and Willowbrook Road. The proposal is currently under review by Allen Township supervisors and was earlier approved by the Allen Township Planning Commission.

Although the Rockefeller Group, the developer for FedEx, attended the meeting along with Allen Township representatives, council's objective was to get a list of concerns to be addressed in a working session with the developer.

Chairman Bruce Paulus started the discussion by "taking the route a truck would follow from the warehouse." Willowbrook Road is converted to a four-lane highway with turning lanes.

"The trucks don't travel very far before they are in Hanover Township," said Paulus. Hanover spent large sums of money in 2012 to upgrade Willowbrook Road and install traffic controls at Willowbrook Road and Race Street.

"The road is built to handle truck traffic, but we did not anticipate the volume proposed by FedEx," said Township Engineer Fredrick Hay.

"When everybody leaves and all the construction is over, the township is stuck with maintaining the roadway without any increase in revenues," said Councilman Curtis Wegfahrt. The lack of revenues for maintenance is a recurring concern in the discussion. From restrictions proposed by Allen Township, semi-trailer trucks would not be permitted to go north on Willowbrook Road. The large trucks weigh 85,000 pounds. According to Hay, the township can dictate the construction details for the expanded Willowbrook Road.

On Willowbrook Road there is a bridge over a culvert that restricts loading to 10 tons. The plans call for a retention pond that is in Hanover Township that will be on private (airport-owned) property. Council asked for clarification on who is responsible for maintenance.

At the intersection of Race Street and Willowbrook Road, Hanover Township will be required to upgrade the traffic signals. The cost to make the last upgrade exceeded the estimate by nearly three times because of requirements added by PennDOT. Council wants to avoid future cost overruns.

According to Hay and his review of the plans, the expansion of Race Street to four lanes will come at the expense of airport property.

"They took very little of the frontage away from businesses along Race Street," he said. Expanding the roadway will involve removing airplane hangers that border Race Street.

Sidewalks are proposed for both sides of Race Street. A bus stop with a turn off lane is included in the plans. The pedestrian crossing alert is minimal. A fatality last year at the bus stop location near Cascade Street pointed out the need for pedestrian safety.

The plans propose a pedestrian-activated flashing signal before the crosswalk. The speed limit remains at 45 m.p.h. Council members questioned if this methodology was adequate.

Little is changed at the intersection of Race Street and Airport Road in the plan. Airport Road is widened to accommodate increased traffic.

A concern first voiced by Councilman John Martucci was the need for improvements for northbound traffic on Airport Road. "Traffic coming off [Route] 22 has a tough time now getting over to Postal Road. It will only get worse with the increased traffic and widening Airport Road," said Councilman Bob Heimbecker. Council agreed that access to Postal Road needs to be addressed.

Although traffic projections have been a concern since the start of the project, Clark Machemer, Regional Director with the Rockefeller Group, shed some light on the projections.

"The figures we used assume a full build out of the facilities," he said. After the meeting, Machemer clarified that traffic included not only the proposed FedEx facility, but additional warehousing space that would be built on Airport property.

"We wanted to make traffic projections for the full impact of the projects we have planned so that we made infrastructure improvements once, not in stages," he said.

Council asked clarifying questions because the assumption was that the traffic projections only included the proposed FedEx hub. The full build out of the property is not expected until 2026, according to Machemer.

The Rockefeller Group along with Lehigh Valley Planning Commission believe the time needed to ramp up the projects will allow enough time for the highway infrastructure to be built.

According to the Rockefeller Group, funding is available to make road improvements.