Monroeville's Pitcairn Road Reopens After Being Closed For 2 Years
MONROEVILLE (KDKA)- After two years of hard work, a road in Monroeville reopened Wednesday morning.
Pitcairn Road was closed back in July of 2013, after a landslide brought down 100 tons of mud. Days of heavy rains created the mudslide that also brought down trees and power lines.
Pitcairn Road was closed between Stroschein Road and the Tri-Boro Expressway right after the slide due to concerns that more could happen. People living along the road say 20 feet of the hillside was washed away, and they were concerned that their houses could be in jeopardy of sliding down the hill too.
Andy Johnson, who lives along Pitcairn Road, described the stabilization project saying, "They dug a flat spot on the hillside up there, dug some holes, filled them and they built a wall - a retaining wall and new drains to supposedly hold the water back."
The Allegheny County Department of Public Works spent $300,000 to stabilize the hillside to prevent future landslides along the road.
"It will make driving times shorter to Monroeville," said Richard Sorrells. "It will help EMS crews with a quicker response time getting to Forbes and UPMC if you have a medical emergency."
A portion of the road reopened back in 2014.
"For the most part, it's been an inconvenience," said Sorrells. "They had opened up one lane at a time, but then the county decided to close it completely."
Neighbors who live along the road like Christina Curry are not happy about the road reopening.
"We want for it to stay closed because even though there's only four houses, there's a lot of kids that play around," she said.
The road was fully reopened after 9 a.m.
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