Businesses go on despite construction
REDSTONE TWP. – Construction on the Mon/Fayette Expressway will mean the closing of portions of both Royal and Old Royal roads this week, but that isn’t stopping the owner of the Pizza Wagon from conducting business. Karen Ross said she will continue to run the pizza business throughout the construction period even though it will be a little more difficult for some of her customers to get to the shop on Royal Road.
“We put a sign up to all our loyal customers that there will be alternate detour routes and to just bear with us,” Ross said.
Royal and Old Royal roads are scheduled to close to traffic coming from Route 40 as of Tuesday at 7 a.m., according to Joe Agnello of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
Agnello said the roads are being closed to allow construction of a bridge that will take Royal Road over the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Old Royal Road will be divided by the expressway and will end in a cul-de-sac permanently, Agnello said.
The construction is expected to last 13 months and is scheduled to be done by June 30, 2007.
The Pizza Wagon is the only business on Royal Road that will be adversely affected by the construction project and the Turnpike Commission has agreed to provide detour signs to the business.
Construction supervisor Lou Horvath of TCMS-Maguire said the signs are on order.
“We’re trying to get them. It takes a while for the fabricator to make the signs,” Horvath said.
The detour for traffic that normally would access the Pizza Wagon from Route 40 will be to turn onto Pleasantview-Smock Road at the traffic light at Searights Crossroads, then to follow that road to Royal Road.
“This is how you’ll get from one side of the expressway to the other during the construction,” Agnello said.
Agnello said the detours will change as the construction progresses, since a portion of Pleasantview-Smock Road will be relocated for construction of the Searights interchange.
Agnello said that Royal Road will be open by the time Pleasantview-Smock Road is closed.
Ross said that she is hoping her customers will be willing to take the extra time to get to the shop during the construction.
“They pass three or four pizza shops to get to me now, and that means something to me. We’re off the beaten path; we’re off the beaten path,” Ross said.
Ross explained that she will continue her delivery service, including delivery to the expressway construction sites.