Alumnus' Engineering Firm, Students Team Up for Highway Safety

The co-founder of a local engineering and surveying firm, whose resume includes a 2002 "degree that works" a bachelor's in civil engineering technology from Pennsylvania College of Technology will join his business partner and two juniors from Maranatha Christian School, Watsontown, in a project aimed at safer roads.

Alumnus Timothy Wentz, who, with Randy Webster, has offices in Muncy and Cogan Station, said the students will help conduct a study of Gold Road in Lewis Township, Northumberland County, beginning at 8:45 Monday morning.



"We're going to perform a speed study using a method known as safe running speed and use a ball-bank indicator to determine safe speeds of critical curves," Wentz said. "It's an effort to establish an enforceable limit and to inform unfamiliar motorists of a safe speed to travel on a road that is not posted."

The Lewis Township Supervisors recommended Gold Road for the study, which Wentz and Webster LLC is conducting at no cost. Instead, the company is using the project to introduce high school physics students to engineering as an occupation. The students will produce a report with recommendations to the township, which will post the appropriate speed limit and advisory signage.

"It is a public-service project that we've combined with an educational opportunity," Wentz said. "We're trying to introduce them to the field of engineering and show how mathematics, physics and technical writing go hand-in-hand, while providing a service to help make our community safer."

Wentz and Webster provide a combined 30 years of engineering and surveying experience, and specialize in highway design, land development, subdivisions, traffic studies and stormwater design. Other areas of company experience include surveying, septic system design, and permitting through various local, state and federal agencies.