For the past year, funeral processions and visitors at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil have had to follow a circuitous route due to construction of the new Southern Beltway toll road.

Instead of the usual access from the Bridgeville exit off Interstate 79 using Washington Pike, Morganza and Morgan roads to the cemetery entrance, visitors had to follow Washington Pike to County Line Road and use an alternate entrance. That also meant close coordination among the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which is paying for the new road, contractors and cemetery officials to provide access and to schedule blasting and other noisy construction activities so as not to interrupt solemn services.

But that will change Tuesday when the main access road to the cemetery reopens.

Crews have finished rebuilding Morganza and Morgan roads with some relocation and the installation of bridges to allow the new highway to pass under them. This is the last section of the 13-mile, $800 million highway and includes building a complicated interchange with I-79.

“It has worked out fantastic,” said Edward A. Hadjuk, acting director of the cemetery. “They’ve been more than helpful. They’ve been accommodating to almost everything we need.”

Turnpike spokeswoman Renee Colborn said it was a matter of mutual cooperation.

“They’re been awesome to work with,” she said. “They let us know when they have events and we work with them.”

With direct access to the cemetery restored, the emphasis shifts to the other end of the cemetery near County Line Road, said Matthew Steele, assistant project manager for this section of the project for turnpike consultant CDR Maguire. In this area, near an administrative entrance to the cemetery, the road will be closed from mid-December until June.

That will allow crews to use about 15,000 cubic yards of dirt to raise the level of a 600-foot stretch of Morgan Road that now has a steep dip.

“There’s been some concern that when you exit the administrative drive and you look to your left you can’t see cars coming,” Mr. Hadjuk said. “I don’t know that there have been any accidents in the three years I have been here, but there’s been concern.”

That work won’t start until Dec. 16 to accommodate about 3,000 volunteers who will converge at the cemetery two days earlier for the annual Wreaths Across America program, which places holiday wreaths on the graves of all veterans at national cemeteries. 

“We’ll leave that all open so they have access during Wreaths Across America,” Mr. Steele said. “We’ll get in there in earnest Dec. 16 and we should be done by June 20.”

The main line of the highway, which connects Route 22 with I-79 near Pittsburgh International Airport, is scheduled to open in 2022. 

First Published: November 24, 2019, 4:20 a.m.