County to fund Murtha Drive repairs
WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners expect to award a contract today to repair Murtha Drive at the former Waynesburg Crossing retail development in Franklin Township.
Four bids were received to repair 31 problem areas on the slightly less than a mile road that may have been damaged primarily as a result of poor water drainage, Jeff Marshall, county chief clerk, said at the commissioners’ agenda meeting Wednesday morning.
The work will involve making repairs to the road’s surface and subsurface, where needed, and for drainage improvements.
The low bid of $347,593 was submitted by Morgan Excavating LP of Belle Vernon. The proposals were reviewed by county solicitor Cheryl Cowen and by Widmer Engineering, which also prepared the bid specifications.
The repairs will be completed in the spring or early summer and may involve some traffic restrictions, Marshall said.
Murtha Drive connects Route 21 and Rolling Meadows Road and serves as the access road to Waynesburg Crossing.
The road was constructed in 2006 for the retail complex being developed by McHolme Waynesburg LLC.
Much of the infrastructure at the complex was funded with state and federal grant money.
As part of developer’s agreement with McHolme, the county accepted ownership of the road, Marshall said.
Maintenance and repair of the road were to be paid for by the developer; however, McHolme Waynesburg later filed for bankruptcy, he said.
The only tenant at the retail development remains Walmart, which was considered the anchor tenant to the retail development and which purchased its property directly from McHolme Waynesburg.
The remaining property in the development, about 152 acres, was purchased by Kari Resources LP in 2013 as part of a mortgage foreclosure against McHolme Waynesburg.