Beaver Grade Road in Moon Township is back open after a landslide. But who pays for the repairs?
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Part of Beaver Grade Road in Moon Township has reopened after it was closed the last six months because of a landslide.
It took six months and 40 million pounds of rock to get the road reopened to traffic. Now that it is, who is responsible for its $4 million price tag?
Beaver Grade Road between Montour Run and Duckhorn Drive, which is owned by PennDOT, closed on Jan. 26 due to a landslide above that affected a handful of homes along Stags Leap Lane in the Sonoma Ridge Development.
Emergency repair work to shore up the hillside included some 40 million pounds of rock and hundreds of micropiles drilled into the hillside in addition to moving the road over so the slope is at a lesser grade.
"They're pretty confident this should last 50 to 100 years," said Al Quaye, the president of the Sonoma Ridge Home Owners Association.
Quaye says when all is said and done, a $4 million price tag is still up for grabs. Who should have to pay is the question on everyone's mind in this community. Does the responsibility lie with PennDOT or the HOA?
Initially, there was talk of each homeowner forking over $14,000 to help defray the cost.
"It's a pretty large chunk of change. It would be quite a bit to ask every family to add on to that when it's not our fault for living here," said homeowner Emily Nash.
Then in a turn of events, it seems those homeowners may have received the news they have been wishing for.
"PennDOT recommended to the Pennsylvania attorney general's office that no action be taken against the homeowners association here," Quaye said.
"It looked like it was part of the road that made this happen. It's not a result of the development," said Quaye.
There's no word on when when the attorney general's office will make its decision.
