Turnpike’s sludge error cost $3.7M
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission made a $3.7 million mistake in the way it handled potentially hazardous material as part of the construction of the Southern Beltway in Washington County.
The state Department of Environmental Protection ordered that an acid solution known as pickle liquor sludge found during excavation must be treated as hazardous material. Instead of removing and storing 66,000 tons of pickle liquor sludge found last spring and summer for reuse elsewhere at the site, as turnpike designers called for, workers will have to take it to a licensed landfill as a hazardous material. As a result, the commission board last week approved a $3.7 million change order in the contract for Independence Excavating of Cleveland to pay for the cost of hauling and landfill fees, as well as covering the areas where it had been temporarily stored.
“We knew it was there and there were plans for how to deal with it,” said Mike Shaak, turnpike assistant chief engineer for construction. “As part of construction, [Independence] excavated and started the process.”
That process, Mr. Shaak said, was the same one the turnpike had used when it found pickle liquor sludge during construction of the most recent section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, finished in 2008. But when neighbors around the beltway construction noticed the smell,
state environmental officials got involved and determined the sludge — a byproduct of polishing steel with an acid solution to remove rust and other impurities — now is considered a hazardous material and must be removed, he said.
DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said the department hadn’t talked with turnpike officials about pickle liquor as part of the Southern Beltway project in more than a decade. She confirmed the material had to be removed but was unavailable to discuss when the department’s standards changed, why the material is hazardous and why the turnpike will not face a citation for the incident.
As part of construction of the $800 million highway, test borings showed crews would find the sludge when they moved 5 million cubic yards of dirt between Route 22 and Quicksilver Road in Robinson. It was common practice in the steel industry in the 1940s and 1950s to add lime to neutralize the orange-tinted sludge and bury it in strip mines. Independence removed about 66,000 tons of sludge last spring and summer and stored it at the site until it could be buried again as crews filled in valleys. But neighbors complained about the smell.
Mr. Shaak said test borings showed pickle liquor in that 2-mile section of the project, but engineers don’t expect to find any more as they build the 13-mile highway to connect Interstate 79 with Route 22 along the Allegheny-Washington County border. The toll road is expected to open in 2020.