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Rain bubbles on the protective plastic used to protect the setting concrete at  the  Pa. Turnpike's new Southern Beltway, taken Aug. 17, 2018 McDonald.    (Ed Blazina's How to Build a Highway series)     (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
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Pennsylvania Turnpike begins flood mitigation work near Southern Beltway in McDonald

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania Turnpike begins flood mitigation work near Southern Beltway in McDonald

More than five years after a series of damaging floods during construction of the Southern Beltway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike has started a $3 million project to install a new drainage pipe along Route 980 at the Cecil-McDonald border.

Plum Contracting Inc. will install a 66-inch pipe, relocate a 24-inch water line and make other changes to reduce the chance for more flooding in the area between Reissing Road in Cecil and the McDonald business district on Johns Avenue. Long-time residents say the area rarely flooded in the decades before the turnpike began moving millions of cubic yards of dirt for construction of the $900 million toll road, but it flooded more than a dozen times after construction began in 2017.

The turnpike has maintained construction was only one element of the problem, which began during a period of record rainfall and occurred where residents had created their own drainage pipe over the years. After a series of interim steps such as increasing the size of detention ponds for the highway, the agency bought some of the properties that regularly flooded and agreed to replace the old pipe system to be “a good neighbor.”

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Beginning Monday, Johns Avenue will be closed between Route 980 and Noblestown Road for the next five weeks. Traffic will be detoured via Noblestown Road and local traffic can get to Johns Avenue from Noblestown.

The new drain will run behind many of the former buildings the turnpike bought along Route 980. The turnpike initially proposed an open trench to carry a tributary of Robinson Run but later decided to use the closed pipe.

The entire project is expected to take about a year to complete.

In addition to the drain installation, the project includes making changes to the flow of water from the hillside above Reissing Road. Plans call for creating a trench 16 feet wide and four feet deep to direct the water off the hill.

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That part of the plan concerns Terry Tackett, who has lived for 33 years at the corner of Reissing and Route 980 and has had regular floods since the highway construction began. Mr. Tackett said the design of the trench takes it behind his house rather than between his house and a neighbor’s and he’s concerned it will overflow and flood the house instead of just washing away his yard and driveway again.

“Nobody wants to listen to me,” said Mr. Tackett.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike made an offer to buy Mr. Tackett’s house along Route 980 in Cecil and paid two of four claims of flood damage from construction of the Southern Beltway.

The 13-mile Southern Beltway links Route 22 to Interstate 79 along the Allegheny-Washington County border near Pittsburgh International Airport. It opened last October.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated Mr. Tackett said the turnpike had not offered to buy his house. The turnpike did make an offer.

First Published: October 9, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: October 9, 2022, 11:34 a.m.

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Rain bubbles on the protective plastic used to protect the setting concrete at the Pa. Turnpike's new Southern Beltway, taken Aug. 17, 2018 McDonald. (Ed Blazina's How to Build a Highway series) (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
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Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
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