TribLive: Theresa Clift | Monday, July 16, 2018, 2:30 p.m.
PennDOT will receive $9.3 million in federal funding to make repairs after an April landslide collapsed three lanes of Route 30 and its retaining wall in East Pittsburgh.
The agency will cover the remainder — more than $2.5 million and counting.
The funding will come from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program.
“Without them, I’m not sure where the district would be right now,” PennDOT District 11 Executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni said.
Route 30 reopened June 27, or 61 days after permanent repair work began on the slide, PennDOT Secretary Leslie S. Richards said during a news conference Monday at the site.
“A typical project of this magnitude would take approximately two to three years to design and acquire Right of Way and additional seven to eight months to construct,” Richards said. “In less than three months, this project has been designed, built and the roadway reopened.”
Crews still have to install water lines, concrete gutters for drainage, do anti-graffiti painting and landscaping and replace an apartment complex’s parking lot, Moon-Sirianni said.
Crews have to install 124 more concrete panels on the main retaining wall, Richards said.
Officials expect the project to be finished by mid-September.
PennDOT paid $6.5 million to North Fayette-based Golden Triangle Construction for the project, Richards said. Of that, $1.9 million was for the new, 400-foot retaining wall.
When the landslide occurred early April 7, it collapsed an apartment building that officials had evacuated hours before. It damaged another apartment complex and a house so badly they had to be demolished. There were no injuries.
About 30 residents of the Electric Avenue Apartments and one home are still displaced, Moon-Sirianni said.
Of those, 21 are waiting to move back into apartments, which they should be able to do by mid-August, Moon-Sirianni said. The remaining residents are waiting for officials to find them suitable replacement housing.
They are staying in apartment-style hotels paid for by PennDOT, Richards said.
“I know when I look back at my career as PennDOT secretary, this project is going to be one of the examples I give to show how PennDOT works with our communities in getting projects done,” Richards said.
Theresa Clift is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Theresa at 412-380-5669, [email protected] or via Twitter @tclift.