This was previously published in our October 2025 issue.

From detours to reroutes, the roads surrounding the Emmaus area have been swarmed by traffic following the closure of a segment of Lower Macungie Road. On Oct. 13, construction on the bridge spanning over the PA Turnpike began, leaving some wondering what the effect may be for Emmaus High School students living in the Macungie area.

East Penn School District bus driver, Robert Beers, believes the difficulty in transitioning from dropping EHS students to arriving to pick up elementary school students in the afternoons.

“It’s tougher getting out of here [EHS],” Beers said in response to the traffic on detour reroutes.

Terminal Manager at Student Transportation of America (STA), Joel Kowalski, thinks that one of the largest difficulties in accommodating bus routes for road closures such as Lower Macungie Road isn’t just being unable to utilize these roads.

“The hardest part for us is actually the municipal construction that is inside the borough of Emmaus, because it’s random road closures that we’re just not aware of, so we can’t really plan for [necessary reroutes] until it actually happens,” Kowalski said.

Kowalski claims that Lower Macungie Road’s closure had a fraction of the effect that East Texas Road will have on bus routes with its currently unscheduled construction expected as the 2026-27 school year. According to Kowalski, the East Texas Road closure is said to affect at least 30 buses, which could affect a large number of students.

“Where we’re actually going to have the biggest problem is when they move over to [begin construction] on East Texas Road, because [with] that bridge, they can’t build a new bridge before taking out the old bridge,” Kowalski said.