Kennett Township police have a message for drivers who ignore the stop sign at Marshall Bridge and Kaolin roads.
Prepare to be ticketed.
“We’re going to be enforcing that, and you will be getting tickets,” Acting Police Chief Matt Gordon said at Wednesday’s supervisors’ meeting. “People have just decided it’s going to be a speedway, and it’s not.”
Construction workers and the township’s Public Works Department complained to the police about drivers “screaming through” the stop sign at the three-way intersection, Gordon said in an interview. Even though Kaolin Road is closed for the bridge repair, the stop sign is still active.
Since the bridge has been closed, police have made about 100 traffic stops in that area, Gordon said.
“Construction workers on the Marshall Bridge side are only protected by rubber orange snow fence and a couple of cones,” Gordon said. “And the people aren’t just rolling through the stop sign – they’re screaming through there at 50, 60, 70 mph.”
Kennett Township’s Public Works Department recently installed a new stop sign, with a flashing red light atop it, at the intersection on Marshall’s Bridge Road to replace the old sign and alert more drivers, Roger Lysle, Kennett Township’s public works director, reported at the supervisors’ meeting.
“Traffic has been running the stop sign, creating a safety hazard for bridge workers,” Lysle said.
The reason for the increased enforcement is to prevent accidents, especially once Kaolin Road is reopened. Drivers turning right on Kaolin Road don’t need to stop at the intersection.
“That stop sign is the only control for that three-way intersection,” Gordon said. “So, if you’re rolling through there at 50 or 60, and people are coming south on Kaolin and making a right, they’re going to be victims of a horrible accident. Somebody’s really going to get hurt.”
He also urged drivers to “slow down on the Kaolin Road detours.”
PennDOT is saying the bridge rehabilitation is scheduled to last into February of 2021.
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
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