'Not much you can do about it': Penn Township's Harvison Road bridge to close, removal slated

Bob Miller was one of the first people to cross the bridge carrying traffic over the turnpike from Harvison Road to Pleasant Valley Road when it was built in 1949.

Friday, he became one of the last.

The Penn Township bridge will be permanently closed to traffic beginning Monday, as crews prepare to demolish it for a major turnpike widening project.

Turnpike officials say replacing the bridge isn’t feasible because of costs and engineering complications. Design work is underway for a planned widening of the turnpike from four to six lanes between the Irwin and Monroeville interchanges.

Miller, 89, still remembers the day he hopped on his bicycle and drove down the dirt road from his home to cross the steel bridge, lined with a fresh layer of concrete.

“I know the history of it,” he said of the bridge, a neighbor to his childhood home. “I know when the construction company put it up.”

Miller grew up in a house near the entrance to the bridge heading toward Pleasant Valley Road. The home was filled to the brim with his mother, stepfather and 15 siblings — 13 sisters and two brothers.

Back then, his street was just a quiet, dirt road.

“How quiet it is in a morgue, it was (that) quiet,” he said. “There was hardly any traffic before the turnpike went through.”

Miller lived on Harvison Road from 1939 until he graduated from then-Penn Township High School in 1953. He married his wife, Peggy, in 1956 and served a few years in the Army before settling down in Penn Township’s Level Green community. Three months from Miller’s 90th birthday, he and his wife now reside in the township’s Blackthorne Estates community.

Although it is emotional to see the bridge go, Miller has come to accept it.

“Not much you can do about it,” he said. “This is progress.”

Project timeline

Construction on the 10-mile section of the turnpike has an estimated cost of more than $300 million. It’s is projected to begin in 2032 on the easternmost portion — between the Irwin interchange and a point west of Harvison Road.

That section should be completed over three years, according to turnpike spokesman Crispin Havener.

Timing of construction on the western portion will depend on the eastern section’s schedule and availability of funding.

Turnpike officials previously expected the widening work to begin much sooner, near the end of 2028. But that timeline changed after the adoption in June of an updated 10-year capital investment plan, Havener said.

The Irwin interchange will be renovated in the widening project. No work will be done on the Monroeville interchange or on Route 130 in Penn Township.

Mosites Construction Co. will handle demolition of the Harvison Road Bridge, slated to begin in September and continue into October. By next June, the contractor is expected to install a cul-de-sac where Harvison Road will end, short of the turnpike’s eastbound lanes.

Mosites’ contract is set at a maximum of a little more than $1 million, with allowance for a $70,000 contingency.

Motorists will be directed along Pleasant Valley Road and Route 130 to detour around the closed Harvison Road Bridge.

Havener said the turnpike commission has agreed to pay Penn Township $1.7 million for improvements that will be needed on local roads as a result of the bridge closure and detour.

Ed Grant, director of operations for the Penn Township Ambulance service, does not anticipate any changes to emergency response times in light of the bridge removal.

Grant said the ambulance service is dispatched to the road for a vehicle accident about once a year.

“When they first considered maybe not replacing that bridge, we did some looking back on our records to see how often we utilize that bridge, what the response times would be without the bridge,” Grant said. “We concluded it would make no real impact on the services that we render.”

At last check, in 2013, an average of 612 vehicles per day crossed the bridge, Havener said.

Turnpike interchange coming to township

The greater concern for Grant is the turnpike interchange coming to Penn Township in the next decade.

Turnpike officials announced in October 2021 it would install an interchange in the township.

They specified about a year ago the interchange will fall near the intersection of Nike Site Road, Sandy Hill Road, Pleasant Valley Road and Route 130. Havener said preliminary engineering is nearly completed for that project, with construction expected to begin in fall of 2035.

An advisory group for the interchange, featuring officials from Penn Township, Westmoreland County and state government, met in March. Grant, who is part of the advisory group, said the turnpike shared some information about the interchange including a few preliminary designs.

“It’s obviously been a big concern and a thought on our mind,” he said. “(We) haven’t seen anything concrete as to what’s going to happen. We’ve been pretty much assured that there will be minimal effect on our current station.”

A Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County waterline on the Harvison Road Bridge has been replaced with a new line including a crossing that was bored under the turnpike, according to authority spokesman Matt Junker. A new hydrant has been installed on Harvison.

The turnpike is picking up the cost of about $669,000 for the waterline project.

It would have cost an estimated $4 million to replace the Harvison Road Bridge with a new version designed to accommodate the widened turnpike, Havener said.

“That doesn’t include any other reconfiguration work that would have been needed, and also does not account for annual maintenance,” he said. “The Harvison Road and Pleasant Valley Road intersection are not on an equal level. Solutions either would have reconfigured Pleasant Valley Road to avoid disturbing a nearby cemetery or a detour of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for three to four years.”

Other turnpike projects

Another project related to the turnpike widening — replacement of bridges carrying Trafford Road over the turnpike and over Lyons Run — was completed in 2019.

With the opening this week of a seven-mile stretch in Somerset County, turnpike officials have completed reconstruction of 55 miles of the toll road between the Irwin interchange and the Allegheny Tunnel in Somerset County.

Reconstruction and widening along five miles from the Allegheny Tunnel east to a point in Juniata Township, Bedford County, is underway, scheduled for completion in 2026.

Engineers are designing additional turnpike widening segments proposed from a point 1 mile east of the Allegheny Valley interchange east to Northern Pike in Monroeville and another 3-mile section in Bedford County.

The turnpike also is designing a proposed bypass of the Allegheny Tunnel.