close

Near Southern Beltway work site, McDonald’s flooding problems continue

4 min read
article image -

Standing on her back porch in McDonald, Shawnee Boyer recalled how recurring flooding last summer kept her from letting her two young grandchildren play in the backyard of the home they share with her.

“I don’t want them to have another summer of not being able to play outside,” Boyer said Monday.

Boyer, who rents a house on Route 980, spent a muddy weekend battling flooding that started during a heavy storm Friday evening.

She estimated she and her daughter spent about 20 hours over several days squeegeeing water and mud together to allow the mud to drain. She said there are still two piles of mud in the basement.

Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter

Shawnee Boyer stands on her back porch, near her backyard, which she said was recently landscaped and replanted after heavy flooding cratered it last year. Flooding over the weekend brought more mud to the home along Route 980.

Boyer and others near the line between the borough and Cecil Township blamed a nearby Southern Beltway construction project for the mud and silt that washed into their yards, homes and businesses.

“I don’t think we’d be having this issue if it weren’t for the hillside being torn up,” Boyer said.

Right on the edge of Cecil Township, a disaster-restoration company had placed fans and dehumidifiers throughout 980 Full Service Mart. The auto-repair shop was closed Saturday and again Monday after heavy rain caused flooding Friday night.

Shop owner Mark Finney was hoping to finish cleanup work by the end of the day Tuesday so he’d only lose one more day of business. He said he’s been flooded seven or eight times since construction began on a section of the Southern Beltway last spring.

“It was like a river coming down,” said Finney’s girlfriend, Nicole Starnes, of Friday’s storm. “It was horrible.”

Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter

Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter

Mark Finney, owner of 980 Full Service Mart, stands outside one of the bays of his shop earlier this month after the business was flooded by heavy rain that hit the McDonald area.

Joseph B. Fay Co. was awarded a $90.6 million contract last year to complete the roughly three-mile section of the Southern Beltway from the Panhandle Trail to Cecil Reissing Road early last year.

Additional sediment and control measures were put in place near the work site last year after flooding in July damaged a number of homes and businesses in that area.

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to the Turnpike Commission in August after the Washington County Conservation District performed an inspection in response to the flooding, and found deficiencies in erosion and sediment control measures.

A little uphill from Finney’s shop, crane operators are placing beams as part of work on a bridge over the road.

Matt Burd, interchange and special projects manager for the state Turnpike Commission, said the turnpike’s contractor hadn’t yet installed erosion and sediment controls related to that ongoing work when the rain hit Friday but have since been put in place.

He also said an inlet near Finney’s business was clogged with sediment and debris that night, contributing to the runoff.

Finally, he pointed to the volume of rain that fell in a short period that night. Regulations require control measures be able to handle a two-year storm, and he said Friday’s was much heavier.

Starnes, who helps Finney with the business, said she wasn’t optimistic about whether she’d see an end to the flooding “because they thought they had it fixed before.”

“It’ll happen again,” she said.

DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley sent emergency response personnel to the area Sunday, and the agency’s “preliminary findings showed issues with missing or ineffective erosion and sedimentation controls on the PTC project site.”

“DEP observed several stormwater management issues including a tributary that is culverted under several homes and businesses that is causing – or significantly contributing to – the flooding,” Fraley added in an email. “The stormwater from the PTC project discharges into this tributary but so do several private pipes installed throughout the years.”

She said DEP was coordinating follow-up inspections with the conservation district Monday but hadn’t received reports back that afternoon.

Bryan Pavan, who owns the Napa Auto Parts store in McDonald’s business district, said the worst flooding occurred Friday night into Saturday. More rain closed Johns Avenue next to his business Sunday night.

“I thought we had it fixed,” Pavan said. “We went through the fall and early spring without a problem, and then we had the rain.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today