Bentleyville Residents Plead With PennDOT To Fix Crumbling Road After Landslide
BENTLEYVILLE, Pa. (KDKA) - A slide has been a big concern for the people who live in the Washington County community of Bentleyville. It has kept the busy road of State Route 2010 shut down for nearly a year.
Ally Milligan lives along the road, which is also known as Lincoln Avenue.
"It's really just a matter of it needs fixed and it needs fixed soon," said Milligan. "My house is here and anything can happen."
However, the parent of two says her immediate concerns are the school buses and police, fire and EMS crews that can't use the road to get to Bentworth School District, which sits on top of the hill. They have to take other routes. One of them is Lackawanna Avenue.
"It's becoming a hassle up at the stop sign that people are coming to the point where they're almost hitting head on to get their kids back and forth to school," said Milligan.
"To get onto Lackawanna, it's really narrow. It's one car or one bus wide and if you get off to the side, a bus could get off to the side and topple down Lincoln Avenue," said Bentleyville Borough Mayor Tom Brown.
Brown said getting the road fixed has been a struggle. The borough sent PennDOT a letter at the beginning of March asking that they make the repairs a priority due to safety. Especially with the county likely shutting down the nearby Oliver Avenue Bridge this summer for up to six months for a full bridge replacement.
"So that means we're going to have two streets closed down," said Brown.
Brown said that means emergency crews could end up going up to a mile and a half out of their way, and it makes it even more difficult to access the schools.
PennDOT said it comes down to two things: they are completing design plans and securing funding.
"Something we can look at and talk with Harrisburg as far as getting possibly emergency funding or finding a funding source to get this project underway," said Jay Ofsanik with PennDOT District 12.
This is something Ally Milligan said needs to happen fast. She shared pictures with KDKA's Amy Wadas, showing how much the road has deteriorated since May of last year.
"My biggest fear is one day it's just going to go and who knows what it's going to take with it," said Milligan.
In the next month or two, PennDOT officials said they hope they'll have a better idea of when they can move forward with this project.
Meantime, Washington County commissioners said they are working with the borough to create a full re-route before they shut down the Oliver Avenue Bridge.
