North Union residents picket near flood-damaged bridge
Frustrated by delays in the repair of a county-owned bridge damaged by flash floods in July, a group of North Union Township residents gathered with picket signs at the bridge on Tuesday as passing drivers honked their horns in support.
Protesters carried signs with messages like, “Don’t pass the buck, fix our bridge,” and “Is this what we pay taxes for?”
Chuck Martin, who lives near the intersection of Turkeyfoot and Coolspring-Jumonville Roads, said he and his neighbors have grown increasingly concerned about safety issues related to routing traffic from Turkeyfoot Road through Lemont Furnace, which has forced more large trucks through an area where, for example, school children get on and off buses. Additionally, he said traffic backs up as the re-directed vehicles wait to turn onto Route 119.
Jeanette Oravetz, who also lives near the bridge, said she was concerned about the safety of people who might need emergency services while the route was closed.
While listening to the scanner, Oravetz said she heard first responders trying to reach a house in Lemont Furnace. “They called for Hopwood for backup,” she said, but the Hopwood responders reached the bridge and had to turn around. “The house burned down,” Oravetz said.
Martin said he and his neighbors are also weary of the extra time necessary to reach locations that are nearby but on the other side of the defunct bridge.
School bus, mail and garbage routes, for example, have also been affected, he said.
In September, Martin said he began contacting elected officials, including township supervisors and Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Zapotosky, to find out who would be responsible for the repairs and when residents could expect to be able to use the bridge again.
“Everybody was blaming somebody else,” Martin said. “They just keep passing the buck. They say by Halloween we might have the bridge fixed. But ‘might’ isn’t helping these people.”
Martin’s neighbor, Bill Collins, said, “Whoever’s holding this up, if it was on their road it would be fixed.”
At a North Union Township supervisors meeting on Oct. 8, Supervisor Tom Kumor announced that the bridge would be repaired by the end of the month and that the contract for the work had already been awarded.
On Tuesday, Kumor said a contractor had been chosen earlier, but the state department of transportation rejected the bid proposal.
Kumor said county commissioners made the state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) aware that it was an emergency situation, and PennDOT agreed to move forward with the chosen contractor after some contingent issues were resolved. Zapotosky apologized to the residents for the delay, and he understood their concerns. He noted that there are procedures that must be followed, and permits addressing a variety of concerns such as sedimentation control needed to be secured for the project.
The county also had to determine how the repairs would be funded, Zapotosky said.
He said he was pleased that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency allocated funding for Fayette and other counties affected by the flooding, and some portion of the bridge repair money would come from those federal dollars.
“The good news is we signed off on the contract, and we’re ready to get started,” Zapotosky said.
He thanked the residents for their patience and said he expected work on the bridge to begin in the next week or two.
Zapotosky said, “Everything is good to go.”