Greene Co. Company Renovating Historic Mon Incline Cars

RICES LANDING, Pa. (AP) - About three weeks ago, the cars on the Monongahela Incline in Pittsburgh were removed from their rails as the Port Authority of Allegheny County began a $3.7 million rehabilitation of the historic Pittsburgh landmark.

The two cars are now a long distance from home.

They were lifted from the tracks by a crane, loaded on trucks and taken to Greene County, where they have been entrusted to NexGen Industrial Contractors for their repair and restoration.

From a work standpoint, the project is nothing unusual for the five-year-old Rices Landing company, which specializes in coal, gas and oil and pipeline construction but which also has done some work recently on the Johnstown Incline.

"It's unique more for the historical value," said Don Lemley of Waynesburg, NexGen's president.

"The incline is the oldest operating incline in the United States," he said. "It's interesting, when you start going back through some of its history, it's the history of Pittsburgh."

The Monongahela Incline, which opened on May 28, 1870, transports passengers to and from Pittsburgh's South Side to Mt. Washington, a 635-foot ride up a 35-degree grade.

The renovation, which is expected to take about three months, will include replacing the rails and rail ties, rehabilitating lift components, replacing the cables and renovating the cars.

The general contractor on the project is the Mosites Construction Co. NexGen is doing its work under a contract with Interstate Equipment Corp of Pittsburgh, a subcontractor.

In addition to renovating the cars, NexGen's responsibilities included some on-site work. The company removed the cars, cables and cable guides, installed the hoist and completed the rigging for the construction car being used by crews to do work on the incline track.

The construction car also was fabricated by NexGen in its Rices Landing shop.

NexGen became involved in the incline project because of its past work with IEC, Lemley said. The company has worked with IEC on several projects, including one on the Johnstown Incline.

"We actually just did the change-out of all the safety and haul ropes on the Johnstown Incline for them three or four months ago," Lemley said.

The cabs of both incline cars have been removed from their undercarriages and now sit in NexGen's shop in Dry Tavern.

The cars are not in too bad of a condition, Lemley said. "They need some repairs, but it's more maintenance, preventative maintenance and repairs for their age."

The aluminum cabs, which were rebuilt during a 1995 incline renovation, will be painted and the interior benches and wood finishes will be redone or replaced. Electrical components and door operating mechanisms will also be upgraded.

Repairs also will be made to the metal undercarriages. A few metal parts on the frame that show signs of deterioration will be replaced and the entire structure will be sandblasted and painted. They will also receive new axles and wheels.

"The undercarriages are old, to what year, I do not know," Lemley said. The undercarriages were not replaced during the 1994 renovation but might have been changed during a renovation in the 1970s, he said.

The undercarriages have the old rivet construction, Lemley said. The steel they are made from also is older, but that's good, he said. "Actually older steel is much better than newer steel." Before, he said, "They rolled steel that would last forever."

Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said it would be difficult to say whether the undercarriages are the originals.

"While it's possible that some parts of the undercarriages were never replaced and are original - most likely the frame - some parts were replaced as they wore down," Brandolph said. "If, for example, a rivet needed to be replaced, it was."

NexGen has 70 days to complete its work, which should not be a problem for its crew, Lemley said. Once the cars are finished and Mosites wraps up its work upgrading the rails and ties, the cars will be trucked back to Pittsburgh.

NexGen will then complete its part of the project, removing the work car and hoist, re-installing the guides and cables and replacing the cars.

Formed in 2010, NexGen initially leased space in what is known as the old boat factory on Browns Ferry Road in Cumberland Township. The company purchased its existing building, a former sports center, three years ago when it outgrew the Cumberland Township site, Lemley said.

The company, which employs about 110 people, has a fabrication shop and steel, concrete, electrical and excavation divisions.

"We're diversified in what we do," Lemley said.

Having completed work on the Johnstown Incline and now being involved in the Monongahela Incline project, the company can now add funiculars to its resume.

"It's made it interesting," Lemley said. "You don't come across a project like this every day."

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