Jul 3, 2021 2 min read

Crews plan to work through the Fourth of July holiday weekend as they continue trying to stabilize the hillside that gave out last week, causing a landslide that covered Route 40 near Yough Lake.

Route 40 will remain closed in Henry Clay Township into next week while engineers try to figure out how to stop the hillside from moving, state Department of Transportation Jay Ofsanik said.

“It’s still a pretty unstable area,” Ofsanik said Friday, adding PennDOT does not know when the highway will be safe to reopen. “We’re still not able to come up with a timeline. We’re dedicated to getting it open as quickly as possible when we safely can.”

The June 24 landslide brought trees, rocks and other debris across both lanes of the highway just west of the Yough River Bridge between Markleysburg and Addison. PennDOT had considered clearing the debris and opening the highway earlier in the week as crews worked to stabilize the hillside, but decided against that plan because of continued ground movement in the area.

“We looked at the options, but it came down to safety, and there’s no way we could get traffic through there without the worry of stray rocks coming down and causing a tragedy,” Ofsanik said.

A detour that takes traffic onto Route 281 into Confluence and then onto Route 523 toward Addison has worked well since being implemented immediately following the landslide. While Route 40 is a shortcut for tractor-trailers trying to avoid parts of Interstate 68 through Maryland and West Virginia, Ofsanik said there have been no issues with rigs clogging the detour route through Confluence.

Electronic message boards on I-68 are alerting truckers to the closure on Route 40 and suggesting they continue on the interstate until being able to access the Mon-Fayette Expressway near Morgantown. Similar signs are displayed on Route 119/40 near Uniontown directing big rigs to use the toll road to avoid the closure.

Ofsanik said that alternate route seems to be taking most tractor-trailers away from detour, which is alleviating any potential congestion through Confluence.

“They’ve seen a decrease in the number of truck traffic going up and down the mountain (on Route 40),” Ofsanik said. “Except for local traffic and trucks that don’t know another way, we’ve minimized that. The detour is working.”