kwarco@observer-reporter.com

Driving in the area of Racetrack Road and Pike Street where the townships of Chartiers, North Strabane and South Strabane meet will be nothing short of a challenge in coming weeks.

Starting Monday, drivers who normally use Johnson Road off Racetrack Road in North Strabane will be detoured to Pike Street through Chartiers and to South Johnson about a half-mile from the Washington County Industrial Park.

Meadowlands Boulevard off Racetrack will be restricted to passenger vehicles and light trucks. Tractor-trailers also will have to follow the detour to Pike and South Johnson back to Meadowlands Boulevard.

In August, Pike Street between Racetrack Road and Meadow Lands will close for about three weeks. Racetrack Road also will close in late summer or early fall so the bridge that takes the road over Chartiers Creek can be replaced. The new bridge, which should be completed in 60 days, will be wider.

Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation, is overseeing the project for PennDOT.

"It is a highway occupancy permit project that the developer pays for," Faieta said. "But since it involves repairs to state roads, I oversee it."

The improvements to the roads will accommodate increased traffic in the area for both The Meadows Casino & Racetrack and Tanger Outlet Mall, which will open for business in late August. The work also includes realigning the off-ramp from Interstate 79 northbound to Racetrack with the northbound on-ramp.

"It will allow Racetrack to be widened to allow turn lanes into the new mall and the casino," said Rob Opel, a representative of Trumbull Corp., which was hired to do the road improvements.

The closure also will allow improvements to drainage.

Chartiers police Chief James Horvath said his department will be monitoring the influx of traffic onto their roads.

"I imagine we will be seeing more traffic," Horvath said. "Traffic lines have been painted on various roads. We will be monitoring speeds and weight limits."

The detour route for the closure of Johnson and Meadowlands Boulevard was provided by PennDOT, Opel said.

While work is proceeding on Racetrack, work continues to align Allison Hollow Road with Racetrack at Pike Street.

"The project is going really well," said Faieta, who is managing that project for PennDOT. "We had some mine void under Pike that we found while putting a pipe in."

Pike will close between Racetrack and Meadow Lands the week of Aug. 17. Plans had been considered to close it earlier, but that was nixed due to traffic headed for the Washington County Fair.

"We were trying to do it before the fair but were told we couldn't shut it down while the fair was going on," Faieta said. "So we'll do it immediately following the fair."

Traffic will be able to make the right from Racetrack toward Houston.

Allison Hollow will be relocated on a fill area. Faieta said the fill area has to sit for 60 days.

"We will monitor it until it is done settling," Faieta said. "If it is done after the 60 days, we'll pave the road. If it doesn't, we'll have to come back in the spring. But I am anticipating no problems."

The project is scheduled to be done by Oct. 31.

Home