Crews search for unmarked graves as they modernize I-70 at Bentleyville Nothing significant discovered yet at former Fallowfield church property
BENTLEYVILLE – Excavation work moves slowly, as layer after layer of ground is removed from an old church site in Fallowfield Township, where the state wants to ensure there are no unmarked graves before a stretch of Interstate 70 is modernized.
The workers are stripping the land one foot at a time at the former Newkirk Church site, and they have yet to discover any graves a month into the special project, said Amanda L. Valko, an archeologist who is overseeing the dig.
“They’ve removed quite a bit of soil so far,” Valko said Monday at the site that was most recently home to King of the Hill Steakhouse, which was demolished to make way for the updated Bentleyville interchange.
The project is the result of mediation between the state Historical and Museum Commission and the state Department of Transportation because early Washington County settlers were buried in the church’s cemetery and its graves cannot be disturbed. Valko, who works for Heberling Associates Inc. of Alexandria, said various electronic testing methods were used in the area and some of them found evidence of unmarked graves over the hill from the church dating to 1868. Those graves are out of the way of the I-70 construction project. There are about three weeks of work left on this excavation project, she said.
During the mitigation, it was determined the church was altered too much for it to qualify for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. It was demolished in December.
“The original church was down closer to the cemetery,” Valko said.
Golden Triangle Construction of Imperial has a $75.9 million contract to widen Interstate 70 in the Bentleyville area, construct two new bridges for the highway, reconfigure the Bentleyville interchange and created a roundabout along Wilson Road.
Excavation workers are also removing a large hill across I-70 from the church property to lengthen and widen the I-70 east approach ramp, said William Bromyard, PennDOT’s construction manager.
The next major job will involve the demolition this spring of an overpass at the nearby I-70 interchange at Route 917, where the ramps will be reduced from four to two, Bromyard said.
The entire project is expected to be completed by December 2018.