Allegheny County eyes April start for Springhill Road project in Harrison

Work on building a path for pedestrians and bicyclists along Springhill Road in Harrison is expected to start in April, a spokesman for the Alle­gheny County Department of Public Works said.

The start date won’t be confirmed until about two weeks before construction begins, spokesman Brent Wasko said.

Wasko said the county does not expect that Springhill Road will be closed completely or traffic detoured during construction.

Allegheny County awarded the construction contract to A. Folino Construction of Oakmont. The company’s bid of just under $700,000 was the lowest of six received and lower than public works’ engineering estimate of $750,000, Wasko said.

The total cost of the project is about $1.3 million, with $642,000 from a federal grant to support expansion of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.

Although there is no cost to Harrison, the township has agreed to some inspection and maintenance duties.

The path will be on the uphill side of Springhill between North Canal Street in Natrona and McWilliams Drive at the edge of the Westlawn housing plan. It is expected to help Natrona residents, whose neighborhood lacks public transportation, get up Springhill Road to businesses and services in the Natrona Heights area, including to shop, work and see doctors.

The road has two traffic lanes traveling up and two down the hill. As a result of the project, there will be two lanes up and one lane down.

During construction, Wasko said, the contractor likely will close the two uphill lanes on Springhill and use the downhill lanes to maintain one lane of traffic in each direction.

“However, no vehicle control plan has been finalized and probably won’t be until we get closer to the start of construction,” he said.