Emergency landslide repairs to halt Metz Road work in Fawn
Fawn officials say landslides caused by the season’s heavy rains on Thompson and Sun Mine roads are an emergency situation and they’re shifting money from another planned project to make the repairs.
A portion of Thompson Road is closed because of a slide there and traffic on Sun Mine Road is reduced to a single lane.
Officials worry the situation could pose a safety hazard should emergency responders have to reach the upper portion of Thompson Road. As a result, they feel they don’t have time to wait for approval of a grant to pay for work to reopen the roads.
Instead, supervisors rescinded a contract awarded last month to Russell Standard to renovate Metz Road. Under terms of the contract, the township had 60 days to back out of the contract, according to township solicitor Steve Yakopec.
The township had planned to spend about $200,000 on Metz Road.
Now, at least a portion of that money — supervisors estimate about $100,000 — will be spent to fix the slides on Thompson and Sun Mine.
Supervisor Chuck Venesky would like to use any leftover money from the Thompson-Sun Mine project to “squeeze in” work on Metz Road.
“I’d rather do Metz Road the right way next year,” Supervisor Jay Swager said.
Supervisors would like to put a trench line on Thompson and Sun Mine and a wall in the problem area to aid drainage.
Sun Mine has a clay base 11 feet deep and Thompson’s clay goes down 14 feet, forcing excavators to dig through the clay until shale is reached.
The $100,000 figure doesn’t include resurfacing the two roads in the Millerstown section of the township.
Yakopec will research the situation to see if there are alternative solutions.
Another issue is an above-ground, temporary waterline on Thompson Road that is 2 inches in diameter.
The temporary line replaced a 5-inch line that had multiple leaks in the landslide area.
Officials are concerned the smaller line doesn’t have enough pressure should a fire need to be extinguished.
No start date for the work was decided.
George Guido is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.
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