Some Cecil residents tire of work on Beltway
When Carol Balsamo moved to the Cherry Brook devel -opment in Cecil about six years ago, she thought she found an idyllic place: a mixture townhousesand single-family homes a few minutes off Interstate 79, where the neighbors know each
other and can’t wait to share events like Halloween.
“You didn’t hear the vehicles on the highway,” she said last week as she stood outside her home on Cherryhill Drive. “You’d just hear the birds chirping.”
That started to change about a year ago when contractors for the Pennsylvania Turnpike began clearing the trees that had been a buffer between the neighborhood and the interstate for construction of the $900 million Southern Beltway, the first completely new highway in this region in decades. Since spring, after stopping work for several weeks at the start of the pandemic, crews have been working up to 20 hours a day moving millions of cubic yards of dirt to build ramps for the complicated interchange with I-79.
That quiet refuge now has all the calm of an amusement park on a mid-July evening.
“Really, they’re working 20 hours a day,” Ms. Balsamo said. “Now, all you’re going to hear is the booms and blasts and beeps. At 2 a.m., even with the windows closed, you can still hear it.”
Add the constant dust and property damage they say has occurred due to blasting, and Ms. Balsamo and many of her neighbors have had it. Faced with the prospect of perhaps another year of similar work, they have reached out to the turnpike and township officials for help.
The township has cited contractors for violating a township ordinance by making “objectionable” noise after 7 p.m., and lawyers for the township and turnpike are trying to work out a solution without going to court.
Meanwhile, Ms. Balsamo and her neighbors chafe at the late- night activity around them.
“If you have a baby, I don’t know how you just put up with it,” neighbor Maggie Evykowsky said during a walking tour of the neighborhood as the evening shift started work at 6:18 p.m. Tuesday. The noise included numerous vehicles beeping as they backed up, and one excavator’s scraping sounding like the clicking of a roller coaster chain pulling a train up a hill.
For Ms. Evykowsky, who bought her home on Cherryhill 25 years ago, the noise isn’t the worst part.
“It’s the dust,” she said. “I don’t know how anybody with asthma could live here. When I went for a walk the other day on the [Montour] trail, it was like a dust storm.”
Molly Tepper, whose townhouse on Cherry hurst Laneover looks the construction site a few hundred yards down the hill, wasn’t expecting the sound of blasting rocks to be part of her workday when she began working from home in March due to the pandemic.
“I had no idea this was going to be an upcoming project [when she moved in five years ago],” Ms. Tepper said. “When I work at home, it’s like an earthquake. Our concern is: How much structural damage has been done?”
All three women went to the turnpike to report damage such as sidewalk and porch cracks, doorjamb misalignment and a hot tub thrown off balance. Their claims either remain pending or were dismissed because they were outside the blast zone or they couldn’t prove blasting caused the problem.
Ms. Balsamo said she believes many residents are in favor of the highway, a 13mile toll road that will connect I-79 with Route 22 along the Allegheny-Washington County border near Pittsburgh International Airport. The main line is expected to open next fall, but some construction will continue until spring 2022.
“I understand there has to be progress and this is what comes with it,” Ms. Balsamo said. “The noise, the dirt, the damage for another year? That’s not fair to the residents that live here. It really affects our lives.”
Others who live in the 175 residences at Cherry Brook wrote their concerns. April Shields, of Cordial Drive, described life near construction in a 1½-page, singlespaced letter. She wrote about near-daily blasting knocking pictures off the wall until she quit putting them back, low water pressure and frequent electrical blackouts.
“They have huge lights that shine into my home all night. Our living room and master bedroom are so bright it looks like you could land a plane …,” she wrote. “We use shades and lightblocking curtains but it is not enough.
“… Some nights I just lay awake. The noise rumbles through the ears and the machinery moving earth is sometimes physically felt. Like you’re moving in your bed.”
Cecil solicitor Gretchen Moore said the township recently cited the turnpike for the noise.
“There’s no stop-work order yet,” Ms. Moore said. “We’re trying to get a resolution that works for both sides. We were in discussions with them in the spring about another issue and worked that out. That’s what I’m hoping happens this time.”
The turnpike also had discussions Friday with state Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-South Fayette, but no resolution was reached and talks are expected to continue this week.
In a statement, turnpike chief engineer Brad Heigel said the agency is committed to working with residents and municipalities to mitigate disruptions. Blasting is limited to daylight hours, and a lot of the earth work near Cherry Brook has been completed, but trucks will continue to move material throughout the project site through mid-February.
“Within Cecil Township, the Commission has and will continue to address local concerns,” the statement said. “We remain committed to working to reduce the noise associated with the bulk excavation associated with the new interchange connecting the Southern Beltway to I-79.”
Damage claims are being evaluated, he said.
For residents, relief can’t come soon enough.
“It’s a nightmare,” Ms. Balsamo said as she walked away from the construction site, while multiple backup warning signals trumpeted in the evening air.
Ms. Evykowsky offered an ironic disagreement. “It’s a lullaby now.”