Lincoln Placeâs Road to Ruin

(Update: This Almanac originally reported that a spokesman for the water company was not available for comment. Phil Cynar of Pennsylvania-American Water Company told the Almanac Thursday that he responded to our initial email within 10 minutes of receiving it Wednesday. We apologize for not receiving his email, and we're reproducing it in full. Make sure to read Thursday's Almanac, too.)

Spring is sprung.
The grass is riz.
I wonder where the pavement is?

I'm no Ogden Nash, but I am wondering when Pennsylvania-American Water Company is going to finish digging up the intersection of Interboro Avenue and Mifflin Road in Lincoln Place.

It's been more than three months since a water main break shut down the Steel Valley and West Mifflin school districts for an entire week and made taps across the Mon Valley run dry. And it seems like the work to replace that line may never end. A press release from PAWC says that customers were supposed to be switched to the new water line at the end of February, but the bulldozers and backhoes are still working in the area.

If you use Mifflin Road as a shortcut between McKeesport and Pittsburgh, you've seen Pittsburgh police out there directing traffic around the backhoes that seem (to this ignorant layman) to be digging up the same stretch of pavement over and over again.

"It was not intended to be an extended project," says Selena Schmidt, chief of staff for Pittsburgh District 5 Councilman Doug Shields. "This is something that needs to be mitigated as soon as possible ... it's just not acceptable."

A contractor has temporarily filled long stretches of Interboro with gravel and cold patch, but it's not level with the rest of the pavement. In fact, one lane now contains a two-block-long bumpy trench that forces motorists headed for Munhall to drive into oncoming traffic or bounce along with one wheel in a ditch. Needless to say, it's a rough ride. I found a brand-new Buick hubcap along the road last night, and I'm surprised there weren't more.

But motorists face fewer inconveniences than people who live in Lincoln Place. One local business owner told me water interruptions frequently force him to close his store, and he's also frustratred with bulldozers and backhoes that have blocked access to his parking lot or parked on his sidewalk, cracking the slabs.

Other parts of the sidewalk along Interboro have been dug up and backfilled with gravel, making them dangerous for people with disabilities. When it rains, mud and gravel wash into the streets and get tracked into people's houses.

Schmidt agrees the repairs seem to be dragging on, and that Interboro Avenue is a mess. One obvious obstacle to getting the road repaired properly has been the harsh weather the region faced in January and February, she says. "You can do temporary filling, gravel, steel plates, but until we get a fairly significant weather break, it would go bad if we tried to (pave) it again," Schmidt says.

But the city can't repave the road anyway until the water company stops digging holes, and PAWC has not told the city when that's going to happen, she says.

(PAWC's response to the initial water line break, which some critics claim was too slow, is the focus of an investigation by the state Public Utility Commission, prompted in part by complaints from Shields.)

In addition, since it's the water company that's been digging up the street, the city believes the water company should contribute financially toward the repairs. "Part of our job is to make sure we stay on them," Schmidt says.

Peter Leo once called Lincoln Place "a forgotten chunk of Pittsburgh forever resisting West Mifflin's embrace." Schmidt wants to reassure residents that the city has not forgotten about them, and says Shields (who held a town meeting with residents a few weeks ago to hear their complaints) is actively putting pressure on the water company to make things right.

"In so many ways it can feel like a forgotten land, which is unfortunate because in so many ways it's a great community," she says. Schmidt expects that Interboro Avenue will probably be repaved sometime this summer, and that it will "definitely" be back to normal before the end of the year.

If PAWC is finished digging ditches across the pavement, of course.

Based on the large piles of pipe, the construction equipment, and the portable toilet that have become semi-permanent fixtures along Mifflin Road, that might seem like a large "if."

Almost as large as the holes in Interboro Avenue.

Update, Thursday, March 22: We spoke to Phil Cynar, spokesman for Pennsylvania-American Water Company, on Thursday afternoon. He noted that he emailed the Almanac on Wednesday morning. For whatever reason, we did not receive his response, and we thank him for allowing us to reproduce it here:

Since we completed the significant repairs to the 30-inch transmission main at the start of the year, we have been working with diligence in the area. From the start, we noted that our crews would have a presence in the area for likely months to come. The stabilization and reinforcement work we are undertaking to help avoid another catastrophic main break in the area in the future has been large-scale. We have installed new a main, moved the main out of harm's way from the dangerous hillside on Interboro, done various tie-ins and other related work. (...)

We want the reinforcement and stabilization work to be effective, and we are doing what is necessary to achieve that effectiveness. We have had weather issues to battle, which have likely slowed work a bit, but that is beyond our control. And as to street restoration, that work cannot happen until our work requiring excavation is done. Similarly, it can't happen until asphalt plants open in April and the temperature is satisfactory for paving work.

We have completed Phase I of our work in the area and are about 50-percent done with Phase II work. Barring complications beyond our control--or weather issues--we should be done with the project, including street restoration work, by mid to late April.

As to communication with public officials, our team has been open and forthcoming with any and all information about the project--right from mid-December. We have made a concerted effort to reach out to local and elected officials in various ways to keep them updated on our work. We are always available, similarly, to respond to any questions they may have. In fact, several local mayors have contacted us with some regularity to get answers to questions they receive, and we have been able to address those quickly and to everyone's satisfaction.

Of course, we acknowledge the inconvenience our work may cause to customers in the area, and we appreciate their ongoing patience and cooperation while we make enhancements and stabilization to better serve them.

. . .

According to Cynar, system upgrades that are being completed by PAWC in the Interboro Avenue area include:

* sliplining the damaged 30-inch transmission main in Interboro Ave. with new 24-inch high-density polyethylene (HDPE) main (work which was completed by January 3, 2007);

* installation of 12-inch HPDE main over the hillside from Route 837 to Gauge St. as an additional reliable feed into the affected area (will also replace a valved-off 16-inch main);

* installation of approximately 1,000 feet of 16-inch main from the Sunoco gas station at Interboro Ave. and Leaside Dr. to the Scorer St. intersection (to avoid potential problems with underground concrete thrust blocks supporting the existing 16-inch main near the volunteer fire department);

* installation of a loop of main from Scorer St. to Kinley Ave. This loop will connect Diller Ave. in order to provide additional flow around the mains in the Interboro Ave. and Scorer St. intersection;

* replacement of the 6-inch and 8-inch mains in Brierly Lane from Interboro Ave. to Homestead/Duquesne Rd. to increase water transmission capabilities.

Cynar notes that this information was printed in local newspapers, along with this addendum: "In some of these neighborhoods, Pennsylvania American Water will have a presence for months to come as work continues. In advance, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Some of our system enhancements or reinforcements may require planned service disruptions while work is being done. We will aim to schedule these at the least disruptive times and will communicate information about any planned outages to affected customers."