Mayor Lutz outlines street-safety push, eyes cheap "quick-build" fixes and state grants

Lutz: "You need a plan... Then you need to find the finances for it. You need to implement the plan."

JOE LINTNER | COLUMBIA SPY 

Plan would prioritize school routes; PennDOT engineers to visit trouble spots next week

Mayor Lutz told council on Tuesday that borough officials are assembling a street-safety plan, and he urged council to pursue grants and set aside matching funds to pay for it.

Lutz said borough administrators, police, and members of the borough's safety committee have been meeting on ways to make streets safer "in the near future." He said he has briefed the school superintendent, who will be brought into the process, and that public meetings will be held as the plan takes shape.

"Several things have to happen as you put a plan together," he said. "You need a plan... Then you need to find the finances for it. You need to implement the plan."

Next week, borough staff and police will meet with engineers whom PennDOT contracts with to review problem locations, Lutz said. Among them is 11th and Spruce streets, where children cross Ironville Pike. "That's a problem area," he said. The other is 9th Street and Route 462, a crossing used by children in the east end.

Lutz said he also met last week with the Lancaster County Planning Commission about the Route 462 corridor, raising concerns about the 90-degree curve at 5th and Chestnut streets and the intersections of Lancaster Avenue with 6th, 8th and 9th streets. 

County planners advised that improvements are easier to win if they are planned before the road is repaved, which Lutz said is expected in 2028. County planning documents rank Columbia's Route 462 stretch, from Chestnut Street to South 13th Street, first among 18 municipalities in a 2025 effort to prioritize Complete Streets improvements alongside PennDOT repaving schedules.  

Much of the presentation drew on a plan from Lancaster City, whose public works staff shared their slides with Columbia.

Much of the presentation drew on a plan from Lancaster City, whose public works staff shared their slides with Columbia. "I'm a firm believer... if we can work together as municipalities with some of our ideas and everything, we can obviously save some money," Lutz said.

Lancaster maps all crashes, including those involving bicycles and pedestrians, into a "high injury network" layer. Lutz said the data could also support the traffic studies PennDOT requires before changes such as new stop signs, potentially saving money. 

Other measures discussed included:

• Signals: Borough staff are working with a contractor on a signal plan for PennDOT approval. It would include a brief four-way stop, followed by a pedestrian crossing phase with a countdown timer.
• Crosswalks: Pre-cut "piano key" markings that are heated into the pavement, which Lutz said would be cheaper than painting them in-house.
• Bump-outs: Lancaster's quick-build curb extensions made with PVC posts. A concrete version was priced at $729,000, against about $6,000 for the quick-build version. The posts can be removed for snowplowing. "How do you put a cost on a life versus a parking space?" Lutz said.
• Raised crossings: Lutz suggested picturing a raised intersection at 9th Street and Ironville Pike and at 6th and Locust, to stop children cutting across diagonally.

The discussion also touched on no-turn-on-red restrictions, which is credited with a 13 percent reduction in crashes, and speed cushions. Red-light cameras came up, but a speaker expressed doubt that a borough could adopt them.

Money and priorities

Lutz said the work would likely be phased, with children's routes to school first. He recommended council pursue grants, including a recently identified ARLE grant, and budget matching funds in the highway budget. "There's some things we can do without PennDOT approval and they're relatively cheap," he said. He did not request a vote. "The decision is yours," he told council.

 Thompson: "We don't need more presentations. We need action."

The presentation came after resident Robert Thompson told council that safer streets require consistent enforcement of speeding, stop-sign and pedestrian-right-of-way laws. "We don't need more presentations. We need action," he said.

Thompson also referred to the deaths of Eric and Donna Lutz, who were struck by a pickup truck at North 3rd and Chestnut streets in Columbia, along with a girl who was taken to a hospital.