Big pipe led to big dig; site struck by vandalism
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
The “Big Pipe” case has resulted in the Big Dig at West Chestnut Street and Franklin Farms Road in North Franklin Township.
Barbara S. Miller/Observer-Reporter
A crew from Alex Paris Construction was at work Tuesday morning while litigants in the flooding case had a status conference with Judge Michael Lucas.
Things seemed to have been moving smoothly with alleviation of flooding at West Chestnut Street and Franklin Farms Road, but a vandal struck last weekend.
The actions, reported to state police, came to light Tuesday morning at a status conference convened by Washington County Judge Michael Lucas, who issued a temporary injunction in June and continues to monitor progress of the project, deemed a matter of public safety.
The vandal or vandals struck between 11 p.m. Friday and Monday morning, coinciding with some rainy weather.
Geoffrey C. Phillips of Phillips and Associates Inc., engineering consultants, of Wall, Allegheny County, testified Tuesday someone familiar with industrial pumps changed a setting on a control.
The pump is part of temporary measures put in place during construction.
“It took a while for the water to drain down,” Phillips said of the weekend rains.
The judge asked if the vandalism was coupled with a theft but he was told nothing was stolen.
A control unit, however, was damaged and had to be replaced.
A crew from Alex Paris Construction was hard at work Tuesday while the litigants were in court.
Additional security will be added to the construction site, it was stated during the course of the hearing.
The judge plans to have the parties confer by telephone in late October, by which time the project may be finished.
The flash-flood waters at West Chestnut Street and Franklin Farms Road have been deep enough to strand motorists and attract kayakers, and forceful enough to send up a geyser in the parking lot of the Bob Evans restaurant. Fire departments responded many times to emergencies there in the the past few years.
Guttman real estate company, owner of a gasoline station tract, won an injunction aimed at abating flooding by filling what is known as a failed “Big Pipe” and substituting another.
The parties, including Orion Development, which owns the Rite Aid drugstore property, reached a cooperative agreement on the matter earlier this summer.
Until it became clogged and caused flooding, the Big Pipe channeled storm water away from the West Chestnut Street commercial corridor and into Chartiers Creek, which flows along and below Franklin Farms Road.
The intersection remains open, but unrelated gas line replacement has been causing traffic backups on Franklin Farms between West Chestnut and Park Avenue.