Storms delay work, finish date on long-awaited Oakmont parking lot

The completion date for a long-awaited parking lot in Oakmont’s business district is being pushed back.

Oakmont Community Foundation president Ray Rogers said work on the lot along Allegheny Avenue has been slowed repeatedly by bad weather.

Oakmont was hit hard by severe thunderstorms at the end of April, leaving residents and businesses in the area without power in the following days. The area saw rain again — lots of it — in May.

After breaking ground in mid-April, the project was expected to be completed by the end of May.

“Since the weather, (construction) is going to be behind,” Rogers said. “We really haven’t come up with a new completion date yet.”

The previously vacant lot had been dug up and forms for the curbs and sidewalks had been placed. Workers have had to drain the spot of standing water, Rogers said.

By the end of the project, the lot will contain about 40 public parking spaces.

“We were hoping to be done by the U.S. Open, but it’s looking like that’s not going to happen,” Rogers said. “It’s looking like it’ll be (completed) shortly after.”

The lot sat vacant for almost six years after the foundation purchased it in 2019 for $500,000.

The foundation then used money received in 2020 from a Multi­modal Transportation Fund grant of just over $1 million to cover the purchase cost and provide money to help pay for the project, itself.

The grant came through the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Project delays over the past five years led to the foundation getting deadline extensions.

The lot is the first phase of a proposed Allegheny Avenue realignment. The plan is to implement different features, including the parking lot along the avenue, to encourage traffic calming and make the road safer.