Ohiopyle crowd urges state to review plan for tunnel, upgrades
After listening to more than an hour of comments from an aggressive Ohiopyle crowd Tuesday evening, planners and consultants for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will review what changes the department can make to a $15 million plan to upgrade roads and trails around the popular recreation area.
The crowd of about 100 raised concerns about the need for a 50foot-long pedestrian tunnel under Route 381 and whether it is tall enough; if sidewalks can be placed on both sides of the bridge at the borough’s entrance; and access to the Ohiopyle business district if road and bridge work is done between September and May.
Barry Adams of Swissvale, who coordinated the Ohiopyle Over the Falls festival for 18 years, said the project is designed to fix a safety problem he doesn’t believe exists.
PennDOT officials said the primary reason for the project was to eliminate “conflict points” where hundreds of rafters,
boaters and pedestrians cross the busy highway on weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“The tunnel is the dumbest part of this whole project,” Mr. Adams said. “It’s a waste of money. Nobody’s gotten hurt.”
PennDOT District Executive Joseph Szczur said there had been one pedestrian accident and one reportable vehicular accident in the past five years but added, “It’s OK to prevent accidents before they occur.”
Pam Kruse, a borough council member and owner of Falls Market, said her business is busy all year and disrupting traffic for road reconstruction would hurt.
“There really is no offseason here,” she said. “I’m really afraid no one is going to have access to our business.”
Another councilman, Patrick McCarty, who is operations manager for Laurel Highlands Outdoor Center, praised PennDOT and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for holding more than a halfdozen meetings in the past month to hear from residents.
“Overall, I think it will be a positive project for the community,” he said.
In addition to the tunnel, plans call for relocating the bike path from the highway onto Ohiopyle State Park property; relocating Sugarloaf Road to make it less steep and combining two parking lots into one; and upgrading the deck and super structure of the bridge.
PennDOT planner Rachel Duda said the project is on a tight schedule that calls for construction over two winters beginning in November, but there still is time to make changes.
“I think it would be a shame to take out the tunnel … but we will take everyone’s comments under consideration,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”
Officials will hold another public meeting to display final plans before construction begins.
The project is being paid for with discretionary funds allocated by PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards, and the funds can be used only for multimodal transportation items in the park area, not other projects in the borough.