Floods near turnpike work hit McDonald area again

Nicole Starnes, who works at 980 Full Service garage near McDonald, said she’s tired of cringing every time it rains, but that’s what happens when you’ve been flooded eight times in 18 months.

The garage is among a handful of residences and businesses that were flooded again Friday. Those affected attribute the flooding to construction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Southern Beltway a few hundred yards away. The area has flooded repeatedly since turnpike construction began in early 2017, but the cause seems to be a series of issues.

But to Ms. Starnes, the reason doesn’t really matter.

“This is just ridiculous,” Ms. Starnes said Monday as she showed videos of fast-moving water, mud and rocks in front of the business Friday. “I did nothing but cry Friday night.

“We lost three days of work and [customers aren’t] getting their cars back because we can’t work on them.”

The flood left a layer of mud and rocks in the parking lot and several inches of water in the garage bays and office. Owner Mark Finney and his staff have cleaned what they could and have hired a professional company for the rest, an expense the turnpike is likely to pay.

Steve Suhr, manager of the NAPA Auto Parts store a quarter-mile away in the McDonald business district, found the same thing when he showed up for work Saturday morning — mud covering his side lot and water inside the store.

“It’s a mess,” said Mr. Suhr. “There’s nothing holding the mud and water back.”

State Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Bridgeville, whose district includes the Southern Beltway construction area, and Cecil Supervisor Ronald Fleeher said they’re tired of the repeated problems. Mr. Ortitay is trying to schedule a town hall meeting later this week to bring turnpike officials, contractor Joseph B. Fay Co. and residents together to discuss how to eliminate flooding.

Mr. Ortitay said he’s had good cooperation from turnpike officials in Harrisburg, but he had less kind words for local officials overseeing the project.

“It’s been a pretty wet last year or so,” Mr. Ortitay said. “We all know there are issues. But they need to fix it. They need to make sure it gets done correctly.

“There are people afraid to leave their homes because they’re afraid it won’t be there when they get back. That has to change.”

Last year, the same area experienced flooding attributed to excavation work along Reissing Road and above Route 980, where crews were preparing to install bridge abutments. The state Department of Environmental Protection cited the turnpike and Fay for several deficiencies that could have contributed to flooding after heavy rain.

Environmental inspectors were back in the area over the weekend and Monday at the request of Mr. Ortitay and a resident. This time, the area of concern was a few hundred yards up Route 980 from Reissing, where Fay and subcontractors are installing beams for the bridge above Route 980.

“DEP’s preliminary findings showed issues with missing or ineffective erosion and sedimentation controls on the [Southern Beltway] project site,” spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said in a statement. “DEP observed several stormwater management issues including a tributary that is culverted under several homes and businesses that is causing — or significantly contributing to — the flooding.”

A final report is expected in a few days.

Turnpike officials said Monday that Fay had excavated an area for an access road so it could place a bridge beam but didn’t finish temporary erosion and sediment controls before it rained Friday night. Matthew Burd, the turnpike’s project engineer, said the temporary controls may not have helped in what he described as “a tremendous amount” of rain Friday.

The National Weather Service said the McDonald area received 0.5 to 0.75 inches of rain Friday night, according to radar estimates.

Crews finished the temporary erosion and sedimentation controls Saturday.

“We re trying to do what we can to keep this from happening,” Mr. Burd said. “It’s not an exact science as much as you’d like it to be. We need to make sure we are on top of things so we can minimize the risk.”

In a statement, Fay said it had all the proper erosion and sediment controls in place and blamed the flooding on unusually heavy rain.

“The amount of rain that fell this weekend in very short time periods was enough to overwhelm the engineered erosion and sediment control measures that were correctly in place to control typical rainfall conditions,” the company said. “On our project, we had the best practices of erosion and sediment control in place according to our contract and it was working as designed except for being overwhelmed by this rain event.”

To Gary Andreis, it doesn’t matter who’s at fault. The repeated flooding led him to close his 6year-old McDonald Auto Service business and he has contacted an attorney.

“I was flooded multiple, multiple times,” he said. “I was losing my customers because they don’t want to go through all that mud.”