Jul 27, 2021 5 min read

The closure of Route 40 near Yough Lake over the past month has sunk the summer sales numbers for marinas and boat stores that depend on visitors spending their weekends on the water.

Yough Lake Marina near Addison and Caney Valley SS Marine in Henry Clay Township both have reported a significant loss in business since the June 24 landslide closed Route 40 just west of the Yough Lake Bridge, but they’re hoping the state Department of Transportation will throw them a lifeline soon and reopen the road.

Many boaters don’t want to pull their watercraft around the 30-minute detour that takes traffic onto Route 281 into Confluence and then steers them to Route 523 toward Addison. Instead, they’re either avoiding the area or not boating at all, Yough Lake Marina General Manager Dianna Rhodes said.

“It has hurt business, and do (boaters) complain? Regularly, yes,” Rhodes said of visitors who think the detour is an inconvenience. “The traffic on the water has decreased significantly, especially in July.”

While both the Somerfield boat launch on the Somerset County side of the lake and the Jockey Hollow launch in Fayette County have remained open throughout the road closure, there are now concerns about how much longer they can be used as the lake’s water level naturally decreases. That is especially true at Jockey Hollow, which doesn’t offer as big of a parking area for trailers and typically dries up faster than Somerfield.

“The problem is the end of our season is coming. There are hundreds of boats that have to be towed out of here,” Rhodes said of the watercraft in their slips. “They’re trying to make different arrangements, concerned about when Jockey Hollow runs out of water, so they’ll pull their boats early so they can get out on the other side.”

That would mean a loss of even more revenue for businesses that usually are thriving until Labor Day.

Bonita Merschat, owner of Caney Valley SS Marine near Markleysburg, expects Jockey Hollow boat launch area to run dry in the next couple of weeks.

“As the lake is dropping, it’s going to really affect our business,” Merschat said. “It’s very bad. They need to do something to step it up to get at least one lane going.”

Yough Lake’s water level is currently 1,432 feet above sea level, according to Douglas Swisher, the resource manager for the Army Corps of Engineer at Youghiogheny River Lake. Jockey Hollow’s ramp will have to close once it goes below 1,419 feet, Swisher said, although there are a combination of factors that make it too difficult to predict when that will happen.

“I’m not sure how long until we get there. If we get more rain, it may stay up higher. Dry, hot days with a lot of wind, it may dry up faster,” Swisher said. “We have a lot more water than we did at this time last year. I guess last year was really dry for them.”

Regardless, Route 40 still appears to be weeks away from reopening, PennDOT spokesman Jay Ofsanik said Monday.

“It’s looking better than it did a month ago,” Ofsanik said. “We think we’re seeing daylight now.”

He hopes PennDOT will be able to announce a “definitive” opening date this week as engineers put together a timeline on when the work will be completed.

“We’re still looking at several weeks. … I don’t think it’s months, but we do have weeks of work left,” Ofsanik said. “It’s been really tough because it’s so unstable up there.”

Rocks, mud, trees and other debris covered the two-lane highway on June 24, leaving the stretch of road impassable. While PennDOT officials were initially hopeful that Route 40 could be reopened relatively quickly, the hillside continued to shift, meaning crews still have to stabilize the ground while also making repairs to the road surface.

With the uncertainty of when Route 40 will reopen, boaters are beginning to plan when they should remove their boats from the water so they can be stored for the winter. If they are unable to use the Jockey Hollow ramp soon, they may decide to take their boats out of the water now rather than pull them from Yough Lake Marina and have to drive them on the winding detour back to the Fayette County side, Rhodes said.

“Labor Day is the last big weekend,” Rhodes said. “That’s why everyone is trying to plan.”

Since Caney Valley SS Marine stores many boats based at Yough Lake, Merschat said they’re working with the owners to let them know of the current conditions at Jockey Hollow. But they’re also preparing to have to tow them around using the detour, if needed.

“We’ll do what we have to do to take care of our customers,” Merschat said.