Marburger Road in Forward, Adams undergoing widening project
Marburger Road, which straddles both Forward and Adams townships, will experience intermittent closures over the coming weeks. Road crews from both townships will work to widen the road and shave off a hill officials say is a dangerous visual obstruction.
“It has a very bad line of sight, and we're working to widen it,” said Forward Township supervisor Susan Oliver-Stough.
She says Marburger Road will be intermittently closed over the next three weeks while road crews work on widening the road from 19.5 feet to 21 feet. The Peachmont Farms housing development is located along Marburger Road.
“They've done some work on the sides, and they did the engineering to make sure it's being done properly,” Oliver-Stough said. “There will be periodic closures for safety. Our goal is to have a safer road.”
Township manager Tom Hartwig says he expects the road improvement project to be finished by Thanksgiving.
In addition to widening the road, the project also will shave 4 feet off a hill located near the Merten well pad to increase visibility for drivers. This, says Oliver-Stough, will reduce the likelihood of serious accidents.
“We did a speed study, and unfortunately, some drivers were clocked at 80 miles per hour on that road,” Oliver-Stough said. “We don't want to have a catastrophic accident on the road, and it's being used more and more.”
Marburger Road is 5,578 feet long, with 4,396 feet in Forward Township and the rest in Adams Township. For its portion of the road, both Oliver-Stough and Hartwig say Forward Township will have its own public works department perform as much of the work as possible themselves to save taxpayer money.
“Our public works group will do as much as we can before we bring in paving companies,” Oliver-Stough said.
“(We are) doing this ourselves to save taxpayer dollars,” Hartwig said. “Adams will do the same work in their township. We are the lead, though.”
The road improvement project is being funded with $125,000 Forward Township received from a Multimodal Transportation Fund grant earlier this year.
