Trans Associates was selected as the recipient of the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE) Harrisburg Section Project of the Year Award in June 2020. The winning project was the Lawn Service Plaza Auxiliary Truck Parking Project for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC).  The project addressed a shortfall in the availability of safe tractor trailer parking adjacent to the PTC.

The design provided room for WB-67 vehicles with 53′ trailers room to circulate, maneuver and park. LED lighting, fencing and signage were all set back and heavy duty bollards protected interior lighting poles. The project used 30,533 square yards of concrete for truck parking at a 12″ depth. The final design added 77 new truck parking spaces on a surface nearly 5 football fields in size!

The level site was not without its challenges. A bog turtle habitat was discovered during the environmental permitting process. Although only 3-1/2″ in size, the Bog Turtle had a much bigger impact on the project.  A 4′ high chain link fence with mesh covering and warning signs were erected to protect the habitat prior to construction and not removed until demobilization.

Stormwater management and local environmental permitting were also challenges considering the size of the parking lot and the potential for spills and leaks from trucks. An existing front pond was retrofitted and a new back pond was constructed. Both were used during construction as temporary E&S controls then converted to their final BMP configurations to preserve the exceptional value wetlands and other requirements related to water quality and quantity. Stormceptor units were also used in the design and buried onsite to pretreat runoff prior to flowing into the basins.