Landslide repair work begins on busy highway in Westmoreland County

PENN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A month-long project to fix a landslide on Route 130 in Penn Township officially started on Tuesday. PennDOT said it’s been sliding for several years.

“[I’m] glad that they’re doing it,” said Ed Deemer, who lives near the construction site.

Repairing this landslide is part of a $2.7 million project to fix four landslides across the area. The other three landslides in this project are in Washington County.

The landslide work on Route 40 in California Borough and Route 136 in South Strabane is already done, and work will soon start on Route 88 in Coal Center.

On Route 130 in Penn, crews are going to fix drainage in the area, repair the roadway, replace the guardrails, and trim some trees.

“The contract will be excavating, removing the slide material there, providing a stable foundation and using rock to build a stable surface to rebuild the road on top of,” explained Robb Dean, Assistant District Executive for Maintenance with PennDOT District 12.

The road will be closed between Burrell Hill Road and 14th Street until August. Because of the closure, there is a detour.

Channel 11 observed many people driving up to the closure and turning around on Tuesday.

“I watch my grandsons over by the high school and I’ve got to go around every day,” Deemer said to Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek.

“How much extra time does that add for you?” Havranek asked.

“Not much, probably about five or six minutes,” Deemer replied.

This is the second time in two years that this stretch of Route 130 has been closed for construction work.

“We thought about, ‘why didn’t they fix it all at once before,’ but it is what it is. We know how things go,” Deemer added.

PennDOT said that was work on a culvert that needed to be addressed, not the landslide.

“The two types of work could not be done at the same time with the resources we had available.”

Neighbors are looking forward to the work being done.

“Having better is always better, it does suck to have the road shut down, but I feel like it’s worth the inconvenience,” said Laurel Holliday, who lives on the Burrell Hill side of the construction. “I’m sure nobody wants landslides, so that’s absolutely good news for us.”

The speed limit on Route 130 on the 14th Street side of the construction is posted at just 25 miles per hour. Neighbors tell Channel 11 that many drivers go faster than that. With the detour and the signs up showing this section of the road is closed, they’re hoping people slow down.

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