Route 30 opens after fast-tracking repairs
Shortly after the hillside below Route 30 in East Pittsburgh collapsed April 7, PennDOT district executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni set a goal of reopening the busy highway by the end of June.
That meant fast-tracking the project to complete in three months what could have been two years’ worth of work under normal circumstances. With help from an emergency declaration by the state and cooperation from contractors and vendors — plus a little good fortune — the agency Wednesday reopened the key link between the Parkway East and North Versailles, East McKeesport and North Huntingdon.
Ms. Moon-Sirianni said Gov. Tom Wolf’s emergency declaration was the key to installing a 400foot retaining wall and rebuilding about 500 feet of the highway between the outbound East Pittsburgh exit and the Westinghouse bridge in such a short time. That allowed the agency to bypass normal bidding and advertising procedures to begin design work immediately and award a construction contract two weeks later, she said.
Consultant Gannett Fleming, which was already analyzing problems that began on the highway several weeks earlier, almost immediately began 10 days of design work. Using field information from PennDOT experts cleaning up the site, Gannett held daily meetings to determine what it needed to map the collapse, find utilities at the site and design the best remedy, said Brian Heinzl, geotechnical project manager in the firm’s Pittsburgh office.
“We were getting real-time data from the site as things were happening,” Mr. Heinzl said. “Our challenge in design was acquiring data. A lot of that information had to come together in 10 days.”
Ms. Moon-Sirianni said the consultant had to make assumptions about such items as the depth of bedrock for sinking support rods for the new retaining wall.
“It happened they were right on with their assumptions and that doesn’t happen all the time in this business,” she said. “A lot of things that had to happen did happen.”
For example, Gannett identified possible suppliers of steel rods and precast concrete panels for the wall and had them attend a pre-bid meeting with possible general contractors. After Golden Triangle Construction won the $6.54 million bid April 20, the state gave the go-ahead to proceed immediately under the emergency declaration.
Golden Triangle lined up subcontractors to supply material and immediately began working to clear debris from the site. Steel fabricator Hall Industries of Ellwood City postponed other work so it could prepare steel beams for the highway and ship them to Columbus, Ohio, for galvanizing.
“Sometimes people don’t realize how these things happen,” Ms. Moon-Sirianni said. “We can’t just go down to Lowe’s and buy these beams.”
Once the wall was in place, Golden Triangle trucked in nearly 40,000 cubic yards of fill during overnight hours when there was less traffic on access routes.
Although the highway has reopened, more work remains, including finishing part of the wall behind the Electric Avenue Apartments and reinstalling utilities such as gas, water and electricity to the complex before residents can return. That is expected to take at least a month.
The collapse destroyed two of the five buildings in the apartment complex and a house about halfway up the hill on Beech Street Extension. The 10 residents who lost their apartments and the 21 more who were evacuated during construction have been staying in a hotel at state expense or with relatives.
So far, PennDOT has spent more than $10 million on the project, but the final amount won’t be determined until all the residents are placed. The state has filed paperwork with the Federal Highway Administration seeking emergency funds to pay for the project but no decision has been made yet.
The estimated 25,000 to 30,000 motorists who use the road daily can expect settling to occur in the new section of the highway, Ms. Moon-Sirianni said.
“People may see a little settlement, but they shouldn’t be concerned about it,” she said. “This is a very sturdy fix.”