Turnpike officials discuss Beltway
Pennsylvania Turnpike officials and contractors outlined plans for a 3.2-mile section of the Southern Beltway expansion through Robinson and Cecil townships and along the line between Allegheny and Washington counties.
“We are here affecting your community, and we want to have as little impact, negatively, on you as we possibly can,” said Mike Houser, the turnpike commission’s senior engineer on the extension project, which includes a total of 13 miles of new turnpike.
The meeting was attended by about 130 people and held at Midway Volunteer Fire Department.
The project includes nine sections of construction to extend the turnpike from the six-mile stretch of the Southern Beltway, called the Findlay Connector, beginning at Route 22 in eastern Washington County, and stretching southeast into western Allegheny County near McDonald and meet Interstate 79 near the line between the two counties.
The section discussed Thursday includes a 1,370-foot, five-span bridge over Route 980. Construction is planned in various stages starting early next month and continuing until late October.
The northern leg of Reissing Road will be relocated and will become Laurel Hill Road. The southern leg will have a new connection to Route 980. Realignment of the Reissing and Profio road intersection is included in this project.
Preliminary work, including pipe crossings at three locations on Route 980, is expected to start next week and will last until early May. During that period, a single lane of the highway will remain open during the day, with flaggers controlling the alternating one-way traffic.
Detours will be posted during stages of work involving road reconstruction.
Officials said the work involves almost 6 million cubic yards of excavation.
Dan Bruener, project manager for Joseph Fay Co. – the prime contractor on that portion of the extension – told attendees blasting will occur in some areas as part of the project, starting between the middle and end of next month.
Houser said the project’s timeline will require Fay to do some blasting at night.
“In April, we’re going to go to five days a week, utilizing pretty much 20 hours a day to get this dirt moved,” he said.
Most of the blasting will occur in the western portion of the project, Bruener said.
Property owners within 1,000 feet of areas targeted for blasting will receive notification letters. They are able to participate in pre-blast surveys to document the condition of their homes in case the work causes damage – which officials stressed they don’t anticipate the work causing.
The surveys are free and take about an hour.
“I’ve got a slab house, so I’m going to make sure I have them come out and look at it,” Bob Davis, 63, told Bruener. Davis lives on Reissing Road near the site of some of the planned demolition.
CDR Maguire Inc. is managing the full expansion project, which is expected to cost $800 million.
The new portion of the Southern Beltway is expected to open in spring 2019.
Davis said he didn’t expect benefits of the expansion to be immediate but to take hold in the ensuing years as more drivers begin using it.
“Temporary inconvenience, permanent improvement,” he said.