Right on schedule
Construction continues Tuesday on College Street in Washington.
Donegal Construction workers are framed by orange safety fence Tuesday morning as they finish the newly poured concrete sidewalk along North Lincoln Street in Washington. Working on the sidewalk are Tom Rugg of Confluence, left, and John Pelesky of Crafton.
Workers with Donegal Construction smooth a newly poured concrete sidewalk Tuesday morning along North Lincoln Street in Washington. Workers are, from left, John Pelesky of Crafton, Keith Pisarek of Mt. Pleasant, Corey Read of Irwin and Jim Baker of New Alexandria. The construction, which extends along Lincoln Street from Maiden Street to Route19, includes new storm sewers, roadway, curbs and sidewalks. Work is scheduled to be completed this fall.
While the assistant construction engineer overseeing work on the College Street project in Washington admits there have been a few bumps in the road, he said Tuesday that the project is on schedule.
Work began in March on the reconstruction of College Street between Highland Avenue and East Maiden Street. It is part of the project that included rebuilding Lincoln Street, which was done last year.
“We are supposed to be done on the left side of College by July 17,” said Scott Faieta, PennDOT assistant construction engineer. “We are pretty much on pace with that and expect to be paving that side in late June. Then I expect to flip-flop work over to the right side.”
“We have the drains in and the sidewalk done,” he added. “We have hit some bumps with underground utilities, but things are coming along well.”
A decision to close blocks of College in the area where construction is actively under way seems to have paid off. Initially, PennDOT was going to allow traffic to flow on the right side of the street but that made it difficult to get construction equipment in and out.
“I’ve gotten no complaints,” Faieta said.
A representative of Donegal Construction, the company doing this phase of the project, sends out emails indicating what blocks will be closed.
Jaison Cox of Trumbull Corp. complimented crews from Donegal for cleaning up the area for Washington & Jefferson College commencement last weekend.
Work on the next phase of the project, which includes reconstruction of Murtland, Ridge and Highland avenues as well as realigning the intersection of Locust and Highland avenues, could begin later this year with the demolition of several buildings in the area.