Category Archive: Threatened Historic Resources
-
Thunderbolt rips library
By Thomas Olson and Tony LaRussa
TRIBUNE REVIEW
Sunday, April 9, 2006A ferocious lightning bolt that struck the clock tower of the historic Allegheny Regional branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Friday evening hurled massive chunks of granite through sections of the building’s roof.
The structure, at 5 Allegheny Square, North Side, was the first of 19 public libraries built by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.
A pyramid-shaped portion of the tower’s peak weighing several hundred pounds ripped through the roof of the second-floor lecture hall, imbedding itself — point first — in the floor where speakers typically stand for presentations.
“What’s most amazing is that none of our collection was damaged,” said Barbara Mistik, the Carnegie’s executive director, who was at the library Saturday surveying the damage. “I’d say we were pretty lucky.”
The library has about 60,000 pieces in its active collection and another 100,000 pieces in its archives, she said.
The impact caused steel roof joists to punch through the lecture hall ceiling — one resting inches from a Steinway & Sons baby grand piano, which appeared to escape damage.
Twisted metal lath and sections of galvanized steel air-conditioning duct work hung from the lecture hall ceiling, and plaster dust settled throughout the room.
Right below the lecture hall in the first-floor children’s section, a roughly 3-foot by 5-foot portion of the plaster ceiling crashed to the carpeted floor, scattering debris and dust. Chunks of stone also damaged the wire-reinforced glass skylight above the library’s main room on the first floor.
Nobody was in the building when the lightning struck at about 8 p.m.
By Saturday afternoon, workers had sopped up water from broken pipes and rain that had streamed down a 3-story metal spiral staircase.
The carved granite cornices that adorned the top edges of the clock tower — each weighing a hundred pounds or more — and shards of razor-edged stonework were littered around the outside of the building, some imbedded several inches in the sodden grass.
“We’re bringing in a crane (Sunday) to get above the roof to assess the damage and begin pulling the pieces of granite and other debris out,” said Suzanne Thinnes, a spokeswoman for the library. “We really won’t know how long the library will be closed or how much repairs will cost until we determine the extent of the damage.”
Thinnes said library officials will be meeting with representatives of its insurance company to determine if any of the repairs will be covered.
Customers can return books to the library’s book drop outside the library’s main entrance or to other branches. The closest branch is at 612 Smithfield St., Downtown.
The Romanesque-style building was designated a historic landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 1970. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The library was dedicated in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
School preservation sought at Turtle Creek
By M. Ferguson Tinsley,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, March 30, 2006Listing the former Turtle Creek High School, now known as East Junior High School, on the National Register of Historic Places could be on the horizon — and it could help save the storied building.
A state preservation agency would have to be consulted before a nationally recognized landmark could be demolished, according to a representative of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
“We have a person working on the nomination form now,” said Ron Yochum, chief information officer for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The nomination will be submitted in four to six weeks and a decision returned in a year, according to the foundation’s President Arthur Ziegler.
The final word must come down from the state Historical and Museum Commission in Harrisburg.
Ann Safley, a state museum commission historic preservation specialist, said the old high school was deemed eligible for the list several years ago and has been held at that status pending a formal nomination. Even so, eligibility alone bestows the same status as that of a building already on the national list, she emphasized.
Ultimately her department cannot stop demolition or renovation of a historic building, said Ms. Safley, but “if [Woodland Hills is] getting state or federal reimbursement for the project, they will have to consult with us.”
Mr. Yochum said The National Register designation is given to properties older than 50 that serve to recall significant historical events, people or locations.
“In this case it’s the architecture of the building and the importance to the community,” said Mr. Yochum.
Last December, up to 250 people rallied behind the Committee to Save Turtle Creek High School and challenged the Woodland Hills School District’s plan to spend up to $20 million to demolish the 90-year-old building in Turtle Creek.
Led by borough resident Bob Mock, the committee demanded that the district consider renovating the school rather than razing it for a new building.
Since then, the district has ordered HHSDR Architects/Engineers of Pittsburgh and Sharon to rethink the plan.
In January, the planners produced new drawings showing that renovations would cost nearly $22 million.
Further in response to the committee, the district formed a citizens/staff review group that has looked into the issue for several weeks. The group is due to comment on their findings next month, according to the district facilities coordinator Christopher Baker.
Mr. Baker said a representative from the Pittsburgh preservation group went through the building a week ago.
If the state Historical and Museum Commission gives the school a spot on the list, it could trigger more architect’s drawings. Demolition, however, may cease to be an option.
“Usually historical commissions don’t like for you to demolish their buildings,” Mr. Baker said.
(M. Ferguson Tinsley can be reached at mtinsley@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455. )
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
Pittsburgh foundation controls Bedford Springs Hotel’s future
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Wednesday, March 29, 2006Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is playing a key role in a $90 million renovation and expansion of the historic Bedford Springs Hotel in Bedford County.
The preservationist organization on Pittsburgh’s South Side, which for more than 15 years has been concerned about the fate of the landmark property, has accepted the donation of a conservation easement that ensures preservation of historic elements of the 200-year-old hotel.
“This is an extremely important project as a jobs generator and for economic development in Bedford County,” Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., the foundation’s president, said Tuesday. “In addition, it enables a major historic complex to be restored and go back into service.”
The foundation’s easement allows it to monitor redevelopment of the hotel and “protects the elaborate wooden gingerbread porches on the guest wings and the Greek Revival central building dating from 1829-42.” In addition, it protects an indoor swimming pool wing and a historic golf course.
The Bedford County hotel, whose earliest buildings date to 1806, in former times of elegance served as the summer White House for Pennsylvania’s only native-born president, James Buchanan.
The property, about 100 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, has been closed since 1990. Since then, several plans to resurrect the hotel failed for varied reasons.
But now the easement and historic tax credits available for the renovation are part of a financing plan that helped Bedford Resort Partners Ltd., a group headed by Texas developer Mark Langdale, to proceed.
The credits and tax deductions available through the easement are expected to cover about $19.5 million of the development costs for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2007. As previously reported, the state is providing $24.9 million in redevelopment grants plus a separate $2 million infrastructure grant.
Minneapolis-based investment banker The Marshall Group has put together a consortium of banks for a $38.7 million first mortgage on the property, with Langdale putting in $4.4 million.
Two other important players are Thistle Financial Group, a Westmoreland County-based company that is providing bridge financing, and The Ferchill Group, a Cleveland-based developer that has expertise in similar historic preservation projects.
Landmarks also cooperated with Ferchill in securing easements and tax credits that helped develop the Heinz Lofts luxury apartment complex on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Dormont must address leaking, locker room repairs at pool
By Al Lowe
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Thursday, March 23, 2006Dormont officials are reluctant to say it, but it seems unlikely their landmark swimming pool will open on Memorial Day.
It might not open at all.
“I won’t say that yet,” Interim Manager Russell McKibben said after a special council meeting called last week to hear reports on the leaking pool and structural problems in the locker rooms at the complex at McFarland Road and Dwight Avenue.
Making the presentation were engineers from Gateway Engineers, a Green Tree firm hired to assess the situation.
“The work [to stop the pool’s leaking and to repair the recreation center] needs to be done or you shouldn’t open the pool,” borough engineer Ruthann Omer said.
Council members told the audience of more than 30 people that it planned to work with the community to try to resolve the problem.
Gateway reported to council that it would cost about $2 million to replace concrete and make piping repairs to stop the leaking. The pool loses 3 to 4 inches of water a day during operation; it should lose a half- inch a day to evaporation.
Another problem, structural deficiencies at the recreation center/locker room which would cost $635,000 to repair, caused Councilman John Sparvero to wonder if the second floor of the center could be rented to groups this summer, as council had planned.
Wayne Jacobs, of Gateway Engineers, said he had to study the problem more closely before making a recommendation on that.
Improvements that have to be made to the building include replacing planks supporting the floor of the men’s and women’s locker rooms, repairing or replacing beams in the filter room and installing a temporary support system while the building support columns are structurally analyzed and a repair method is planned.
Mr. McKibben said the borough could not float a bond to cover the cost of all the repairs. “Our indebtedness prevents us from borrowing that kind of money,” he said.
He had asked the engineers to evaluate the building and determine any structural deficiencies because few improvements have been made over the years. “If you want to shoot the messenger, go ahead,” he told the audience.
An option being considered is using a paint to act as a sealing agent to stop the leaking at what is expected to cost much less than $2 million; although that cost is not known. Gateway has asked Aqua Pool, a swimming pool contractor, to determine whether this is feasible.
The 60,000-square-foot pool holds 1.4 million gallons and is among the largest pools in the state. It received landmark designation from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation in 2002.
But officials were forced to fill the pool with 8.1 million gallons last year. The cost was $42,000, twice as much as normal for the summer, Mr. McKibben said.
“We’re losing a phenomenal amount of money,” Mr. Sparvero said.
As usual, the pool, which is normally open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, was a money-losing proposition, as pools are for other South communities. The borough received $37,610 in pool pass sales and $92,252 in daily receipts. Utilities cost $85,000.
Other costs included general maintenance and repairs, including replacing pumps, at a cost of $25,000, using chemicals costing $33,000 and salaries of $71,000.
“You can see the whole situation is pretty upside down,” Councilwoman Ann Conlin said.
She chairs the recreation committee, which is scheduled to discuss the problems further at at a 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting at the municipal building.
The pool began as a wading pool in 1923 by damming a stream, according to records kept by the Dormont Historical Society.
It was developed to look like a tropical lake before a decision was made to hire contractor Scheiffer and Rait, of Dormont, to build a pool. The project was finished in 1928.
The pool and a wooden pool house were dedicated in 1929. Fine sand was added at that time to make the area resemble a beach.
The all-time attendance record was set in 1949 when a crowd of 5,000 came to the pool July 4.
During audience comments at the meeting March 14 Sarann Fisher, of Dormont, implored council, “The pool is the reason people pay taxes in Dormont. There has got to be a way to fix it.”
(Al Lowe is a freelance writer.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
Board settles on renovating Turtle Creek school
By Peggy Conrad, Staff Writer
Gateway Newspapers
Wednesday, May 10, 2006Woodland Hills School Board last week decided not to follow the recommendation of the ad-hoc committee that was formed to study whether to rebuild or renovate East Junior High School in Turtle Creek.
At a special meeting on May 2, the committee recommended creating detailed and comparable design plans, one each for a renovated structure and a new building, and that the board commit to the least expensive option.At the next day’s agenda-setting meeting, the board voted 5-3 to no longer pursue a new building and to have renovation plans developed in further detail.
Members Linda Cole, Randy Lott and Colleen Filiak voted to follow the recommendation of the committee; member Fred Kuhn was absent. A public meeting of the board and architects will be scheduled to determine the extent of the renovation.
“The board needs to meet and define what that renovation might be,” said Cynthia Lowery, board president.
“We can create the most beautiful plans, but if we don’t have a plan that has the majority of support of the board, it’s wasted. It’s time to start looking at ‘What does the board and the Woodland Hills community support?’ I have to get five votes,” she said.
Lowery’s initial inclination was to follow the recommendation of the committee, but during discussion, it was apparent that other board members were hesitant or opposed to doing that.
“If I had voted the other way, the board would have been split,” she said. “I went with where I felt we could come to a consensus. I just don’t think we can continue arguing about it indefinitely.”
Lott agreed with the committee, saying the board needs to further define its options.
“We don’t have enough comparable information to make a rational decision …. We need to take a step back and do some specs and define for us some comparable plans,” he said prior to the vote.
The options now are a complete renovation that would update the building to meet current educational standards or a limited renovation including needed repairs.
One of the main issues is whether to include a swimming pool, as the ad-hoc committee strongly recommended, to offer equitable instruction to all junior high students.
The $500,000 cost cited by a committee member is much too low, said Lowery. The cost for a new pool would be closer to $1.5 to $2 million, according to the architect.
Board member William Driscoll asserted the district had not done enough long-range planning to determine if the population 15 years from now would support a junior high school in Turtle Creek designed to hold 400 students.
“I’m not convinced that we need to do much more than what needs to be done to maintain the existing East Junior High School,” Driscoll said.
Andreas Dometakis of HHSDR Architects said immediate needs in the next five years include handicapped-accessibility, improving ventilation, re-moving asbestos and addressing structural issues and water leakage.
The state has directed districts to upgrade buildings to current educational standards within a certain period or risk losing reimbursement, he said.
Previously, HHSDR said a new building would cost $20.3 million, renovating would cost $21.5 million and a combined junior high school for all seventh- and eighth-graders would cost about $30 million.
Board member Robert Tomasic continued to assert that a combined junior high at the site of the administration building would be more convenient, equitable and save on future operating costs.
Board member Robert Clanagan said he was willing to go with the recommendation of the committee since it was a community decision.
Cole said the board’s facilities committee basically came up with same solution as the ad-hoc committee.
Board member Marilyn Messina said the ad-hoc committee did admirable work, but the board should have had many more meetings on the issue because of the divided reaction from the community.
Filiak said she still leans toward renovation, but mechanical problems need to be addressed.
-
Mellon’s Downtown plans leave subtenants in limbo
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Thursday, March 9, 2006Come May 31, one of Pittsburgh’s most dramatic buildings, the ornately designed Two Mellon Bank Center, will be nearly empty.
That’s not surprising, since the major tenant, Mellon Financial Corp., announced last year it planned to vacate the 11-story Downtown building — also known as the Union Trust Building — sometime before the end of May.
However, the question that has many people still guessing is: “What’s next?” for the landmark building constructed by industrialist Henry Clay Frick and opened in 1917.
“Limbo is a good word,” said Rick Conley, owner of Oliver Flowers, describing the plight of the more than 20 tenants who still populate the first-level retail arcade area, and remaining office tenants on the floors above.
“We really haven’t heard anything,” said Conley, who just about every day talks to someone else with a question about what’s going on there.
“We’re waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Rachelle Scanga, owner of the Remedies pharmacy, a 20-year-plus tenant.
Scanga, like a number of other tenants, said she’d like to stay, and is anxious to hear word on her fate from DeBartolo Property Group LLC, the building’s owner.
Most of the tenants are subleasing from Mellon, which has decided not to renew its master lease for the nearly 600,000-square-foot structure designed in Flemish Gothic style by noted Pittsburgh architect F.J. Osterling.
Their continued tenancy is in question because their subleases expire concurrently with Mellon’s master lease at the end of May.
Last year, Joseph Lufkin, senior vice president of Tampa, Fla.-based DeBartolo, successor to the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp., of Youngstown, Ohio, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that it was the company’s intention to try and re-lease the building.
However, the building is losing occupancy at a time when the city’s commercial office market vacancy rate remains just under 20 percent and large tenants looking for space are scarce.
In the meantime, there has been little word from DeBartolo, tenants say. Lufkin could not be reached for comment.
One of those not moving is Larrimor’s, the upscale clothing store that has been in the building for 66 years. The store has a separate, longer-term lease with DeBartolo, said its owner, Tom Michael.
Business at the store is good, he said.
“We like our space, we believe in Downtown, and we think our location is fairly good, although I wish the building wasn’t empty,” Michael said.
Also not moving “at this time” is a Citizens Bank safety deposit box and foreign exchange center in the building’s first sub-basement level, said Mike Jones, a Citizens spokesman.
But others are, including a 3,000-square-foot U.S. Steel Corp. training center that is shifting to the U.S. Steel Tower, and the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which is moving to the Frick Building on Grant Street.
“We’re moving at the end of March,” said Sky Foerster, president of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh, whose office is on the 11th floor at Union Trust. The council is moving to One Mellon Center across Grant Street.
“The Union Trust Building is one of the most significant buildings, architecturally, in the city, after the Allegheny County Courthouse,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
“It’s a very dramatic, highly visible piece of Gothic architecture, remarkable inside and out, and we were delighted with the restoration that was completed several years ago,” Ziegler said. “It is one of the most lively and agreeable buildings in which to step out of your office and into the hallways and see that great rotunda space and the beautiful terra cotta Gothic ceiling.”
Mellon is relocating its employees to one of three other Downtown buildings — One Mellon Center, 325 William Penn Place and the Mellon Client Services Center.
“The pending expiration of this lease at Two Mellon Center has provided us with the opportunity to restack our headquarters facilities, which is part of a larger ongoing initiative to reduce occupancy expenses corporate-wide,” said spokesman Ron Gruendl.
Mellon, which has a total of 6,300 employees Downtown, hasn’t said how many of those workers are based at the Union Trust building. Real estate officials have estimated it occupies about 70 percent of the nearly 600,000 square feet of office space there.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
-
Historic, asbestos-plagued Schenley deserves reprieve and makeover
By Patricia Lowry,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, February 22, 2006Close Schenley High School? He can’t be serious.
And move the Schenley students to Reizenstein? He must be joking.
He wasn’t. On Nov. 9, the shocking news was that Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt would close the storied school that looks like a Greek temple and move Schenley students and staff to the one that looks like a prison. He didn’t put it quite that way.
Shouldn’t this be a no-brainer? Isn’t Schenley the school with the fabled, historic neighborhood, the proud heritage, the great building? Isn’t Reizenstein the school that’s walled off from its neighbors and in a 1970s building that only its architects could love?
But such decisions aren’t made on looks and location alone. Schenley has asbestos issues. It’s embedded in the plaster walls and ceiling, the pipe coverings and the floor tiles, and estimates for removing it and upgrading the mechanical systems came in at $55.7 million and $86.9 million.
The good news is that Roosevelt kept an open mind and listened to Schenley supporters who want to keep the school where it is. He formed an independent task force to study the issue. That committee got a more detailed, room-by-room estimate from a third architectural firm, Astorino, which believes the job can be done for considerably less — about $32 million to address the major problems and $62 million for a full-scale renovation. For now, closing Schenley is off the table, until the task force comes up with a recommendation.
Here’s hoping the committee sees the school for what it is: a tremendous asset in which taxpayers have made a hefty economic investment, $1.48 million for the land, building and equipment, and another $9.4 million for the 1985 addition, which added a new pool and a gymnasium. That’s a total of more than $43 million in 2006 dollars, a fraction of what it would cost to assemble the land and erect such a building in that neighborhood today. But thanks to the foresight of an earlier Board of Education, it’s already there. All this one has to do is take care of it.
In fact, the board has been maintaining Schenley, commissioning and installing custom replacement windows approved by the Historic Review Commission, putting in a new science lab and new seats in the auditorium and making repairs as needed. But it’s clear from a tour of the building last week that Schenley still needs a lot of work.
Major upgrades to the heating and electrical systems have been delayed because they can’t be done piecemeal due to asbestos. The building’s natural ventilation system was shut down 10 years ago because the ducts that bring fresh air to each room are lined with asbestos. Every time even minor repairs or improvements are done, the asbestos abatement contractor must be called in along with the plumber or electrician, escalating the cost. That new $600,000 science lab cost twice what it should have because of asbestos abatement, said my school district tour guides, construction chief and architect Vidyadhar S. Patil and environmental specialist Robert J. Kennedy Jr. And while Schenley has a computer lab, asbestos has left the school unable to reach its goal of about a dozen computers in each classroom.
Although Kennedy’s monthly inspections make sure no asbestos has been exposed inside the building, Schenley looks tired and worn in places. But the structure of this steel and concrete school, which rests on 1,700 concrete pilings, is sound.
Moreover, Schenley has some important assets Reizenstein Middle School lacks: a landmark Classical Revival building with a monumental entrance, a culturally rich neighborhood of museums and universities and a strong visual connection to that neighborhood.
The triangle-shaped building was designed so that each of the classrooms that line the perimeter has an abundance of natural light. So do the corridors, which face interior courtyards flanking the central auditorium, but it’s the classrooms that get the views.
Some may argue that a view is a distraction. That seems to have been the opinion of Reizenstein’s designers, who placed a ribbon of clerestory windows around the first floor of the building that give minimal natural light and no view of anything but clouds and sky. The second-floor windows, hidden behind overhangs, are even worse.
I would argue that natural light is essential to well-being and that the view, especially the one from Schenley, is inspirational. It helps students understand and bond with their community. Almost 40 years ago, I was a student teacher at Schenley, in the art room located in one of the building’s elbows. From that hillside perch, we had a commanding, panoramic view of Oakland, which spread out below us like a 3-D map.
To understand what an important building Schenley was when it opened, you have to go back a little further.
Schenley was the first high school built after the state assembly reorganized the Pennsylvania school system, creating central boards of education that no longer had to share power with local ward school boards. That made bigger, better school buildings possible, with more amenities such as auditoriums, libraries, science labs, art and music rooms and swimming pools.
Schenley was the first high school in the country that cost more than $1 million to build, a distinction trumpeted in local newspapers along with its status as one of the top 10 high school buildings in the country.
Schenley’s architect was Edward Stotz, who, in answering the call for a building with minimal ornamentation, also provided one with maximum dignity, faced in Indiana limestone and with a projecting, columned entrance that communicates that the act of entering the school is of some significance. The spare treatment continues inside, along with the elegant materials: Corridor floors are terrazzo, and the stairs are white marble. When the building was new, reproductions of famous paintings and buildings lined the walls, turning the halls into galleries. Today the hall walls are too bare, and while one of alumnus Andy Warhol’s report cards is in a glass case (he got straight A’s), there are no reproductions of his work hanging about.
Stotz apprenticed with local architects before spending the year of 1889, when he was 21, studying and sketching in Europe. He was 48 when Schenley opened, and he seems to have regarded it as his best work. A 1922 biographical reference mentions his most prominent buildings, including Colfax School, Fifth Avenue and South Side high schools, “and the most beautiful of all, the Schenley high school.” The firm he founded, now known as MacLachlan, Cornelius & Filoni, designed Downtown’s new Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts.
If Schenley moves to Reizenstein, the district would spend about $15 million to upgrade science labs, build an auditorium where the defunct tennis courts are and improve the lighting.
A better option, and one also being considered, is moving Schenley students and staff to Reizenstein for a year while Schenley is upgraded. If the district applied that $15 million toward the $32 million cost of renovating Schenley, it would be almost halfway there.
Protected by city historic status, Schenley is in no danger of being torn down, and the building still would have an educational use if the district sells it to the University of Pittsburgh, one potential buyer. But Schenley’s highly successful magnet program, which provides a variety of educational opportunities in a racially diverse setting, deserves to keep blooming where it was planted. Even in these pragmatic days, that should count for something.
(Architecture critic Patricia Lowry can be reached at plowry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1590.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
-
PennDOT to unveil new Rt. 28 plans
By Joe Grata,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, February 09, 2006Forty-three years after the idea was broached, and at least as many meetings and plans later, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has yet another design for rebuilding the hazardous, traffic-clogged stretch of Route 28/East Ohio Street between the North Side and Millvale.
Engineers will reveal the latest proposal for the two-mile stretch at a series of three public meetings beginning Monday.
Until then, they’re keeping it a secret.
In response to a request for details, PennDOT District 11 spokesman Jim Struzzi responded, in part:
“Given the sensitive nature of the issues surrounding the project, we would rather people hear it from us in detail at the meeting(s) where immediate questions and concerns can be addressed.
“We will be presenting a new alternative that we hope balances the many interests of stakeholders involved.”
The design is expected to reflect the work of a special task force PennDOT formed after the last public meetings in June 2004, when residents, the city and others objected to 12 previous designs and an “Alternative 13,” a hybrid presented for the first time.
The public-private collaboration consists of two dozen interested parties, including Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, the Washington’s Landing Homeowners Association, Mount Troy Citizens Council, Pittsburgh Planning Department and, because of indecision about the future of historic St. Nicholas Church, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The design of the “missing link” connecting the city to the rest of Route 28 and the Allegheny Valley Expressway has been complicated by a narrow shelf of land between Troy Hill and railroad rights of way, interchanges with the 31st Street and 40th Street bridges and environmental issues.
At the last update, PennDOT officials said they wanted to keep the maximum $180 million project on track for a fall 2008 groundbreaking.
Once under way, construction is expected to take four years and inconvenience drivers of more than 60,000 cars and trucks a day.
The region’s four-year Transportation Improvement Program that sets federal highway funding priorities provides $5 million for more pre-engineering, $4 million for final design, $1.6 million for utility relocation, $17 million for property acquisition and $8 million in 2008 to start the construction on time.
Monday’s public meeting will be from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Teamsters Temple in the 4700 block of Butler Street, Lawrenceville. PennDOT will make formal presentations at 4:30 and 6 p.m., with engineers and consultants on hand to explain maps and answer questions during intervening periods.
The same format will be used for meetings from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, 337 Fourth Ave., Downtown, and from 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Holiday Inn at the RIDC Park in Harmar.
(Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1985.)
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette