May 7, 2007 By Amanda Clegg 3 min read

MENALLEN TWP. – The room where the Sabatula triplets awake in next may be slightly less noisy than the room where the three one-year-olds nestle beneath their blankets now. Outside their windows, 40-ton dump trucks wait for the glint of the sun to touch their metal skin before roaring to life for a new day of construction for the Mon-Fayette Expressway’s Brownsville to Uniontown section.

Christa and her husband, Dan, and their children – Emma, Hunter and Hannah – live in one of the last houses still standing on Upper Middletown Road amid the construction for the expressway.

The dust and noise surrounding her brick home off Route 40 has the Menallen School librarian searching for a way out of a mess that she didn’t know would be quite so messy.

She may have found the right route.

Joe Agnello, spokesman for the Turnpike’s western regional office in New Stanton, explained that although the Sabatula Family and two other families asked that the state not purchase their house during a March 2003 meeting, the state will purchase the property, barring unforeseen objections.

“We want everything to work out,” he added, noting that the Sabatulas’ change of heart is slightly easier for them than the Turnpike Commission.

The area under construction near the Sabatula house is part of Project 51C, a $38 million contract with Mashuda Corp. in Butler. The project consists of 2.4 miles of road and the Searights-Herbert interchange, Agnello explained.

He noted that the commission did suspend nighttime construction at the family’s request and that construction would be “largely complete” in the fall on the project.

Agnello explained that houses do not have to be a certain number of feet from construction.

“There is no hard and fast formula you apply,” he noted, adding that the state “tries to take into consideration (the wants) of the property owner.”

“Whatever we decide to do we are required to make someone whole again,” he added.

When the turnpike commission and the family met during the final design phase of the project in March 2003, the Sabatula family understood only in theory what living next to the construction might be like.

Although Christa explained that she and Dan don’t really remember what they exactly told the commission at that meeting, they probably did ask them to not take their house. But things have changed, she added.

“We never thought it would be this big,” she said of all the dust, noise and safety concerns that a homeowner might not think of when making such a decision.

Agnello explained that each property is considered “case by case,” but the homes closest to the construction are the toughest. The commission does hold public meetings and disburse information to make sure homeowners are aware.

Christa Sabatula is worried about getting fair market value for her home. She and her husband purchased the house in 2001 for $90,000, asked for $120,000 in 2006 when they first approached the commission and now hope to get $180,000 for the property. She explained that they completely remodeled the home inside and out.

State Sen. Richard Kasunic (D-Dunbar) has been working on helping the family for almost a year, he noted.

“I know the Turnpike will be fair,” he said. “I don’t think the Sabatulas quite understood how close the construction was going to be. They’re justified in pursuing a remedy. Unfortunately, that’s taking a long time.”

Kasunic explained that the percentage of homeowners complaining about construction is low, saying that “based on the number of properties taken the percentage of people contacting me are practically nil.”