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Friday, June 21, 2002

By Jan Ackerman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

When homes and businesses were damaged by flooding June 13 after a storm dumped several inches of rain on Fallowfield, Washington County, local folks blamed the newly built Mon-Fayette Expressway.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission quickly denied that anything it did in building the $588 million, 17-mile stretch of toll road had caused the area to become more prone to flooding.

Yesterday, the turnpike commission bowed to public pressure and announced that it had hired a consulting firm to take another look.

"It never hurts to get a second opinion," said turnpike spokesman Joe Agnello.

Greenhorne & O'Mara Inc., a Greenbelt, Md.-based consulting firm, was retained to examine the storm water management system for the section of the expressway just north of Interstate 70 near Charleroi.

Agnello said the firm would bill the turnpike commission on a daily or hourly basis. He said the commission would work with representatives of Greenhorne & O'Mara's office in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County.

Agnello agreed that it was "somewhat unusual" for the turnpike commission to have an outside engineering firm assess the design and performance of the expressway's drainage system.

But he said the commission believed the re-evaluation was important, given the suspicion that the Mon-Fayette expressway had contributed to or had exasperated the flooding.

Was the expressway a factor in the flooding the residents said was the worst they had ever seen?

"We don't think it was, but the turnpike commissioners want to be sure," Agnello said.

Turnpike Commission Vice Chairman James J. Dodaro of White Oak said that if something needed to be fixed, the turnpike commission would do it.

"It is important to us that residents of the mid-Mon Valley consider the turnpike a good neighbor. We have asked for a thorough, objective review of the situation because we believe that is our responsibility to these communities," Dodaro said in a prepared statement.

William Kalakewich, a resident of Fallowfield for 17 years who has rocks, debris and sludge in his yard as a result of the events on June 13, is one of many people in the area who blame the turnpike commission for the intensity of the floods.

"I saw this coming when they first started building the road," Kalakewich said yesterday.

State Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California, said he sent a letter to commission members on Monday, asking them to investigate the flooding. He was pleased that they responded quickly.

The consulting firm was scheduled to meet with turnpike officials yesterday to begin preparing an environmental analysis of events.