Price tag for Majestic Hills slides: $3M and growing
Work is expected to begin Monday to stabilize a section of Oakwood Drive in the Majestic Hills plan that collapsed in late October.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
This photo from November 2018 shows a section of Oakwood Drive that collapsed in the Majestic Hills plan in late October.
Dealing with the aftermath of a series of landslides that became the catalyst for the razing of several houses and road closures in the Majestic Hills development is expected to cost North Strabane Township at least $3.3 million in public funds.
That number continues to grow during ongoing efforts to remove a slide on the slope between Majestic and Forest Lane drives. Three houses on Majestic Drive were razed in early October, following an evacuation order by township officials.
Township Manager Andy Walz said the township is planning to recover the money from developer Joseph DeNardo, but couldn’t say how.
“We’re working on it,” he said.
Walz said officials “have just kind of been paying it down. We just floated a bond for buildings, and we included it as an allowable expense.”
The crumbling hillsides prompted officials to declare a state of emergency in late September to expedite the hiring of contractors to address the problems in the exurban neighborhood.
The slides also helped weave a tangled web of litigation against the developer and others involved in the project, including a federal lawsuit house builder Ryan Homes brought against the developer.
DeNardo told a reporter in late September recent heavy rains had “exacerbated the problem” in the neighborhood. Since then, he hasn’t responded to repeated requests for comment.
So far, Walz said razing the houses and fixing the hillside below – an effort led by Stewart Contracting Inc. of Cecil Township – has cost more than $716,000.
Separately from that work, officials expect to spend millions of dollars more to help stabilize nearby Oakwood and Bentwood drives.
Construction to shore up Bentwood, which was already closed when a section caved in late last month, is expected to start soon. The firm GeoStabilization International is leading that project – whose cost is expected to exceed $624,000 – along with planned work to repair nearby Oakwood.
Walz said Oakwood is the priority for the township, and contractors will switch over to that project once weather permits. That work will include using soil nails, reinforced concrete and horizontal drains, plus repairing the road once work is finished.
The estimated cost of the Oakwood work is almost $2 million, according to a summary viewed by officials during a special Nov. 8 meeting, when they decided to go with that plan over other proposals.
The township opted to engage GeoStabilization for the Bentwood work, too, because the Nov. 15 deadline for DeNardo to comply with an order issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection lapsed.
The agency had directed the developer to stabilize the slopes in the development and prepare a new post-construction stormwater management plan.
“He has not submitted anything to demonstrate compliance,” DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said in an email last week. “DEP plans to meet with the developer in December.”
Township engineer Joe Sites of Gateway Engineers said last week Stewart Contracting will provide “grading and excavation support” to help the firm access the work area and “keep their bench maintained.”
“Weather’s been an ongoing battle there,” Sites said. “Hopefully we see some clear weather in sight.”