NESQUEHONING -- A major road-straightening project in Carbon County is almost finished. Neighbors hope the work along Route 54 in Nesquehoning will reduce the number of crashes, but there are other concerns that come with the re-done road.
Seven months of paving, sweeping, and straightening have made a curvy part of Route 54 in Nesquehoning, smooth.
The $3.6 million project started in March, eliminating S-curve after S-curve.
People living along the road said the curves made it dangerous.
"A lot of accidents. We had a couple that came around the corner that ended up in the yard, a couple near misses," said Harry Miller of Nesquehoning.
Now the road is nice and smooth and straight, but that brings on other concerns about speeding where the speed limit is only 40 miles an hour.
"Have you been seeing a lot of people speeding on it already?" asked Newswatch 16.
"Oh yeah, there's quite a few, mostly the younger set. It's just natural, people in a hurry to get nowhere," said Charles Eis, of Nesquehoning.
Whether it leads to more speeding or not, neighbors still said the work on Route 54 in Nesquehoning was a step in the right direction.
"A great improvement because before, this road was all busted up and especially with all those turns, now that should eliminate a lot of accidents," said Eis.
PennDOT still has some paving to do, but said the work should be complete by the end of the month.