Daunting driveways
The driveway leading to the Hemlock Lane residence of Steve and Cindy Dick in North Strabane Township
Jason Lesnock’s driveway in California is so steep he encourages visitors to park near the end and walk up.
Kristen Clingerman’s driveway stretches off a long lane off Route 136 in South Strabane Township.
John Perry stands halfway down his 600-foot-long driveway that has about a 15 percent grade in Buffalo Township.
Southwestern Pennsylvania is home to some of the steepest roads in the country – Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood, in fact, is considered the steepest street in the United States.
Washington County residents who have built their homes amid the region’s hilly terrain find themselves dealing with daunting driveways that homeowners in flat areas like Ohio and Indiana could only imagine.
Here, some homeowners who love where they live – once they get up the driveway – share the challenges they face getting up and down their daunting driveways.
Family and friends who don’t have a four-wheel-drive vehicle don’t visit the Dick family of North Strabane Township on snowy winter days.
“In the winter, if it snows and we’re holding a Steelers party or a Christmas party, nobody will come,” says Cindy Dick. “The ice in the winter is ridiculous.”
The long gravel driveway, which is shared with three other homeowners, has steep sections that front-wheel-drive vehicles just can’t maneuver in snow and ice.
Dick says that on several occasions her husband, Steve, has used his truck and a chain to rescue cars that have gotten stuck in the driveway. “There have been times we’ve parked at the bottom and just walked up,” she says.
The Dicks spread wood ash from their wood-burning stove to help melt ice and snow.
Snow and ice aren’t the only conditions that cause the Dicks headaches. Heavy rains flood and wash out the driveway. “We’re used to it, though,” Dick says.
John and Terri Perry’s Buffalo Township home sits atop a beautiful, 10-acre wooded lot – once you get up the driveway.
Perry, who owns a construction company, built the concrete driveway, which includes one 90-degree turn and, he estimates, a 15 percent grade.
“When we looked at the lot, I had concerns that it was too steep, but it was where I wanted to be,” says John Perry, whose family moved into the home in 2015. “The driveway’s been fine. I just have to take care of it in the winter. The problem is if you plow it, you have to keep salt on it because it turns into a bobsled track.”
Jason and Maria Lesnock have a beautiful view from their California home. But, that driveway.
“My real estate agent said the driveway and steep front yard were an issue, so we got a great deal on the house,” says Jason Lesnock. “We don’t mind it much unless we’re walking the garbage down.”
Visitors have two choices: they have to either back their vehicle up the driveway or back down – there is no room at the top to turn around.
Lesnock says people often choose to park at the bottom of the driveway or along the road and walk up, instead of testing their parking brakes.
Lesnock says his parents’ home, about a quarter-mile away, also features “a pretty nasty driveway.”
“You just get used to it,” he says. “It’s part of your life.
It takes more than two minutes to drive to the top of Robin Stang and Kristin Clingerman’s winding, half-mile-long driveway, located off Route 136 in South Strabane Township. Drivers have to maneuver a steep drop-off with a creek at the beginning of the gravel driveway, and a steep hill leading to the house.
“The winter is the challenge. It doesn’t look like it, but from the house down to the gate, it’s treacherous when you leave. There’s a ditch to the left, but if you go too far to the right, you’ll go through the fence,” Clingerman says.
Four homeowners share the driveway, and Stang and one of the neighbors have plows to clear the lane.
“You can’t salt it because it would turn into a mud pit,” Clingerman says.
When her son, Colton, was young, babysitters declined to babysit when the weather was bad because they didn’t want to navigate the driveway.
Stang is a horse trainer and owns a horse transportation company (he hauls horses throughout the country), so he has to maneuver large horse trailers on the driveway.
One benefit of the driveway: when it freezes, Colton plays hockey on it.
Washington resident Dana Ledger’s concrete driveway is long and steep, and it has developed cracks and “gashes” that offer additional challenges to motorists.
A telephone pole situated one-third of the way up the driveway serves as another obstacle.
Ledger recalls that a visitor slid into the telephone pole while attempting to get up the driveway one winter.
“In the winter, you have to get some momentum to make it up. If you don’t have four-wheel drive, don’t bother,” Ledger says. “The street to get to my driveway is a challenge, and then you have my driveway. Once you get up the steep part, the driveway is flat at the top. But getting up it is the challenge.”