Route 837 reopens after giant boulder falls on road
UPDATE -- The road has reopened.
CLAIRTON, Pa. (KDKA) - An artery through the Mon Valley is still closed after a boulder fell in the middle of the road.
Route 837 is closed from Clairton to West Elizabeth, more specifically from St. Clair Avenue in Clairton to the Elizabeth Bridge.
Crews were trying to get the boulder broken up Wednesday in hopes of repairing the road Thursday.
According to PennDOT, the boulder came crashing down off the hillside Tuesday afternoon. Somehow, no one was injured along the busy stretch of road.
"I've never seen a boulder come down that big," Barb Meehlieb of Lincoln Borough said.
With the chunk of rock too big and heavy to just push to the side, crews had to come in Wednesday and break it up and haul it away. KDKA had Sky Eye 2 above crews as they were drilling away at the massive boulder.
"Very similar to roadways -- once there's cracks developed in the rock formation, water gets into the cracks. Those cracks expand when the water freezes. When it thaws, water goes deeper in and it keeps pushing that crack further and further apart," said Lori Musto, PennDOT District 11 assistant district executive for maintenance.
According to Musto, geotechnical engineers took a look at the hillside. They found no loose material and believe this is isolated.
"We haven't had any issues regarding this particular area that were of major concern in the past several years," she said over Zoom.
Musto said the road is believed to be damaged. Once the rock is broken up and hauled away, crews will be back out Thursday to repair the road.
"We're looking at hopefully [Thursday] some time we can get the road repaired and get things back open," Musto said.
In the meantime, drivers are asked to take the Elizabeth Bridge over the river to Lincoln Boulevard up to the Clairton-Glassport Bridge.
"Thank goodness no one was hurt. No one was killed," Meehleib said.
With many roads cutting into hillsides like Route 837, engineers are out often to make sure our roadways stay safe, but it's not an exact science in predicting when something will become a hazard.
"It's one of those situations that it's really hard to determine when a rock will actually fall," Musto said.
She said crews will continue to monitor the hillside. Crews also cleaned out the drop zone of debris along this route while they were out here.
