On Aug. 1, a violent storm inundated Chestnut Hill with water, leaving basements flooded, gullies washed out and Cresheim Valley Drive closed and in need of immediate repair. Traffic was hurriedly detoured into residential neighborhoods. Residents set about cleaning up their mess and waited for word on the city’s first steps toward doing the same. 

Nearly two months later, we’re still waiting. Without money in its budget to allocate to emergency road repairs, the city is counting on Harrisburg to secure federal funds as part of a regional aid package. Meanwhile, monies lie in wait for scheduled capital improvements on Cresheim Valley that are due to take place next year.

This money needs to be redirected toward an immediate repair project on this critical artery before bureaucratic delays and negotiations over jurisdiction leave us bogged down in a process that, like the Germantown Avenue bridge, ends up taking years.

Though Cresheim Valley Drive lacks the high profile and symbolic significance of the Germantown Avenue bridge, the situation is, in some ways, worse than what we faced when those troubles began in March of 1993. Traffic was, in that case, diverted onto other arterial roads – Northwestern Boulevard and Stenton Avenue. While inconvenient for drivers, the detour did not pose a significant threat to residents or pedestrians, and actually made for a safer walk into Fairmount Park for Chestnut Hill College students.

The opposite is true in the case of Cresheim Valley Drive, the only link between the Montgomery County suburbs and Lincoln Drive in Mount Airy that avoids residential neighborhoods for most of its length. Without Cresheim Valley, traffic flows onto Allen’s Lane past Houston Elementary School, onto McCallum Street at the basketball courts or directly onto Willow Grove Avenue, where it clogs this residential street and creates more problems on Ardleigh Street, Shawnee Street, East and West Gravers Lane and Evergreen Avenue as drivers seek creative ways to access Stenton Avenue. The dangers of such a situation are obvious.

In the wake of residents’ recent complaints about motorists’ speed and a failure to heed stop signs, Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller has called for a traffic study on Ardleigh Street. While this is a good idea, it needs to wait until the problem of Cresheim Valley Drive has been addressed; otherwise, traffic counts will be skewed. Local politicians, residents and community groups – including the CHCA – should see the repair of Cresheim Valley Drive as priority #1.