Following closure, Equitrans agrees to repair damaged E. Finley road
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Signs warn drivers at the Burnsville Ridge Road mouth of Spruce Road, which East Finley Township supervisors closed Tuesday because of natural gas processor Equitrans’ failure to make repairs to the road in line with conditions on its plans for a metering station on property there.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
East Finley Township engineer Samuel Carroll of the firm Harshman CE Group discusses the situation involving Equitrans and Spruce Road with a reporter Thursday at the township building.
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Complaints about poor conditions on Spruce Road prompted East Finley Township supervisors to close the road Tuesday. This section is near the road’s entrance on Templeton Run Road.
East Finley Township supervisors had to close a road mauled by heavy trucks going to and from the site of a planned meter station before natural gas transmitter Equitrans Midstream Corp. agreed to make repairs.
The company made that promise on Thursday to fix narrow Spruce Road, which connects Burnsville Ridge and Templeton Run roads and is mainly used by people who live along it. Complaints from some of those residents and the company’s previous failure to meet an obligation to keep the road in good condition prompted supervisors to vote to close the road to trucks two days earlier.
Officials say trucks that have been hauling limestone to the site as part of work on the company’s Stout meter station and taking soil back out have caused damage like ruts and clogged drainage ditches along the tar and chip road.
“It’s nothing but mud when it rains,” said Melissa Metz, the township secretary-treasurer.
Equitrans spokeswoman Natalie Cox said in an email the company had spoken with township officials about the problem.
“Both parties now have a mutual understanding and will be aligned moving forward,” she added.
Orange signs at both ends of Spruce declare the road closed. Metz said the decision applies to heavy trucks but not local traffic or emergency vehicles.
Township officials spoke to the company Thursday morning during a meeting that had already been planned before one resident’s security camera caught a truck headed for the work site in violation of the decision. Two others soon followed.
Township solicitor John Smith said Equitrans abided with the closure on Wednesday. But the trucks’ return the next day prompted a call from the township to state police. A trooper went to the site and took a report.
Cox didn’t offer an explanation for the resumption of the traffic. Roadmaster Jerry Brownlee said a company representative blamed a “miscommunication.”
Following the morning meeting, township engineer Samuel Carroll, who works for the firm Harshman CE Group, said Equitrans expects to begin repairs today and hopes to have the road ready for inspection by Monday evening.
“They’re going to make immediate repairs to the rutting issue, and they’re going to make further repairs as their truck traffic continues to decrease,” he said.
In September, Equitrans – which at the time was about to separate from natural gas producer EQT Corp., its former parent – got approval from supervisors to build the Pisces compressor station on nearby Templeton Ridge Road. Meter stations – including the Stout facility – to regulate pressure on the spiderweb of pipeline around the Pisces plant are part of the plans.
The first of 41 conditions supervisors placed on the approval was an obligation for the company to maintain it to the township’s standards. Officials said that didn’t happen. Carroll, Brownlee and another engineer met with Equitrans representatives on March 19, after Brownlee had already been receiving complaints for several weeks, Carroll said.
At the time, the company said it would fix the problems, but that didn’t happen.
“There were minor efforts made. There was some stone placed on the road, but it was a larger stone,” Carroll said.
Carroll said more extensive repairs, including filling in the ruts and leveling the road surface, were needed.
Metz said she invited Equitrans to send someone to this week’s meeting, but no one from the company attended.
“We had several angry residents and no Equitrans to explain themselves,” she said.