State Route 93 along the Broad Mountain in Nesquehoning continues to see tractor-trailers head southbound down the grade, despite a ban.

Local and state officials met Thursday to discuss options to enhance safety on the route and divert trucks running against the posted ban, said state Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon.

Heffley sat down with Nesquehoning borough officials along with representatives from the state Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Game Commission to see what additional steps can be taken.

This was a preliminary discussion looking for the most feasible solutions, as truck traffic increases in the region, he said.

Nesquehoning Councilman Bruce Nalesnik said that the meeting opened the possibility of creating a solution for rigs that don’t take the detour as recommended.

“It’s becoming an increasing problem with all the warehousing up in Hazleton,” Nalesnik said. “These trucks are using GPS and its taking the shortest route, which brings them down 93. We wanted to discuss what could be done.”

He said that one suggestion is to create a loop on a stretch of game commission land, which was clear cut several years ago, to allow rigs that missed the detour to have a place to turn around and return back to the detour instead of traversing the mountain.

“They will be cited if they are caught coming down the hill,” Nalesnik said, adding that borough police are patrolling the area and have issued several citations for prohibited rigs coming down the Broad Mountain.

The next step is that PennDOT will conduct a feasibility study to see if creating such a turnaround is possible, as well as possibly adding more signs to alert rig drivers about stopping at the top of the mountain and better information on which rigs are not allowed on the road.

PennDOT instituted a ban on southbound rigs in 2017, adding dozens of signs to alert truck drivers. They read, “Prohibited 102” twins, 102” trailers over 28½ ft. South on Route 93.” Local deliveries are exempt.

The ban came a year after three tractor-trailers crashed on the steep, 9% grade heading south, three days in a row. Only one tried to use a runaway truck ramp, and none had stopped to reduce gear, as signs instruct trucks over 21,000 pounds to do atop the mountain, officials said.

Some trucks, however, continue to run southbound against the ban.

In January, a southbound tractor-trailer lost its brakes on the steep grade, missed the runaway truck ramp and skidded on its side along the road before mowing down guardrails and plunging down an embankment.

Nalesnik said about 20 minutes after the meeting ended on Thursday, he was traveling the Broad Mountain and came across a tractor-trailer pulled off the side of the road coming down the hill because its brakes were on fire.

“There’s a good example right there,” he said. “We had a meeting about it and there was another one that could have been a potential accident.”