West Kittanning Road Work Continues

by Sarah Steighner

The rainfall so far this summer has highlighted the roads and drains in desperate need of maintenance throughout West Kittanning.

However, while the flooding by recent rainfall has demonstrated which streets are in the most dire need of construction, the problem lies within some of the streets drainage system and the lack of upkeep throughout the past several years.

With this in mind, the Borough Council has been tackling the problem starting with the streets in most need of work.

While Spruce Lane and Lorraine Avenue recently underwent work, Northern and First Streets are next in line.

Council member, Henry Mores updated the Council and public on recent construction efforts on the Borough Streets during last night’s Council meeting.

“We’ve replaced two major drain lines, one on Spruce Lane. We put in a new catch basin across the road. There’s just a bit of hand work left to do. We were able to stop about 90 percent of the water that had been running into the gentlemen’s (West Kittanning resident) basement,” Mores said.

Mores further discussed the roadwork that is being finished on Lorraine Avenue.

“On Lorraine, there was the same problem - water was running down along the edge of the road. There was an old collapsed drain. We had to go ahead and re-route water from the right side of the road to the left and put in about 35 feet of pipe on the left side of the road and a new catch basin,” Mores said.

Mores continued to explain the upcoming project that is set to take place tomorrow or Thursday of this week on Northern Avenue.

“Our next projects are going to be Northern Avenue and First. Northern has been an ongoing problem for 10 or 15 years. We are going to attempt to dig out one catch basin which is over the hill.

It’s going to have to be done by hand. If we can’t do that, we’re going to have to go ahead put in a new drain system,” Mores said.

Mores explained that the situation on Northern Avenue is taking priority due to the current flooding problem that the street has caused for the Borough and residents.

“It’s flooding the road. The whole pipe has been neglected for years, and it is clogged for about 40 feet, maybe more,” Mores said.

In order to fix this problem, the streets under construction will have to be sectioned or blocked off for a period of time during the work process.

Mores explained that while this may be briefly troublesome for residents along the street, it will be beneficial to all residents for a long time to come.

“We have to block off the street in some places. You have to inconvenience some people for an eight hour period,” Mores said.

Mores clarified that while he brings maintenance issues to the Borough’s attention residents have been voicing their concern over the troublesome street situation for years.

“Things have been neglected for so long, you have to start spending the money somewhere,” Mores said.

In other coming evenings, West Kittanning Crime Watch meets at 7PM this Thursday in the municipal building.

Borough Council will meet again at 6:30PM Monday, August 3 in the West Kittanning Municipal Building along Arthur Street.

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