Engineer: Greensburg/Hempfield sinkhole repair won't affect Route 30
Progress is being made to repair damaged underground infrastructure that caused a massive sinkhole to open up two months ago along Route 30 at the border of Greensburg and Hempfield.
PennDOT contracted with Gulisek Construction to handle the project that has been ongoing since heavy rains in mid-July caused an inlet connecting two underground stormwater pipes to fail. The emergency repairs could cost more than $2 million, said Dominec Caruso, Westmoreland County assistant construction engineer with PennDOT.
“We’re not going to have to impact Route 30,” he said. “We’re not going to shut that down.”
PennDOT took over the project from the Greensburg Commerce Park property owner July 17, a few days after the sinkhole opened up feet from the heavily traveled highway. The inlet damaged connects pipes that run between 40 and 50 feet underneath Route 30 and the business park, which houses Gander Outdoors and Dino’s Sports Lounge.
During the last two months, officials have formulated a plan to make repairs while waiting on 60-inch steel pipe to arrive, Caruso said. That pipe is being pushed underneath Route 30 by Aaron Enterprises of York.
Amelie Construction has started drilling down to the inlet and shoring the trench walls.
Caruso said there isn’t a time frame for completion of the work.
The July 11 storm brought the region’s precipitation total at the time for 2019 to 30.02 inches, ahead of last year’s record-breaking 29.35 inches in the same time frame, the National Weather Service in Moon said then. The region was drenched with more than 19 inches of rain in May, June and July, making it the most saturating three-month stretch recorded at Pittsburgh International Airport since July to September 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit the area.
August was much drier, with 2.45 inches of rain that month, more than an inch short of the 30-year August average of 3.48 inches.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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