Fallowfield Twp. to repair roads

The supervisors agreed to hold off on major roadway projects until after an Interstate 70 project is finished.

Work will be done to a few different stretches of roads in Fallowfield Township that are in need of attention – but supervisors want to hold off on a larger scale paving project for now.

During Wednesday’s meeting, supervisors discussed a few different roads in the township that are in need of repair.

The first road that needs attention is Rosena Drive, specifically on Bentleyville Road.

Supervisor Earl Sadler said that Rosena Drive was damaged from a water/drainage problem in Van Voorhis that was made worse by heavy hauling.

While the road was minimally repaired from the problems left after the heavy hauling, it still needs some attention.

“I figured between the two situations, while we are at it (making additional repairs) we might as well pave Rosena Drive properly and do whatever other repairs have to be done,” Sadler said.

Additionally, Sadler asked the bid specifications for that project to include paving for the entirety of Raymond Road off of Fourth Street.

Chairman Bruce Smith asked if there were any other paving projects up and coming, but Sadler said any additional work on other roads should wait.

“Right now I am leery about doing anything,” Sadler said. “This winter we have had some heaving done on our roads, which we will take care of the repairs on those, but the thing of it is they are getting ready to widen Interstate 70, but that’s not going into affect until 2028. They are doing a lot of core drilling up there and a lot of extra work and I don’t want to put our money into something that is just going to need to be done again. That’s worthless.”

Sadler said most roads can wait.

“Most of the roads are in good enough condition that we can try to live with them until further notice,” Sadler said.

Hatch Engineers will put the project for Rosena Drive and Raymond Street out for bid.

Sadler also said a decision needed to be made about repairing about 100-feet of Lover Jonestown Road.

“We had an area, about 200-feet off of Route 481 that had about 70-foot of a damaged area due to the fact that the creek went down and eroded some of the edge of the road,” Sadler said. “We repaired the road as the engineer told us to do, but the blacktop was put on it late in the season and they did a poor job. They didn’t do it right, I don’t care.”

Sadler said about 100-feet of road needs to be milled and done properly.

“We don’t have the equipment to mill, we don’t have any of that,” Sadler said. “A lot of the work we are doing, we are doing the best we can. The very best we can with what we have, but this situation, it was the time of year, it was just a bad situation.”

Sadler said he believes the repair will cost less than $12,000 but would like to get quotes to get it done.

“I’d like to get this done as soon as possible, as soon as the weather permits,” Sadler said.

If quotes come back higher than anticipated, Sadler said the township will consider a different option.

“We’re not too sure this year how the cost of everything is coming in, it could go down or it could go up,” Sadler said. “We’ll get quotes and if we find it’s too high we will just drop it and reevaluate.”

In other business:

• Supervisors agreed to pay $200 for annual dues to the Washington County Association of Township Officials.