Armstrong County Township Wins Road Safety Improvement Award

South Buffalo Township in Armstrong County was presented with the second runner-up award in the 22nd Annual Road and Bridge Safety Improvement Contest at the annual convention of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors in Hershey April 18-21 for finding a permanent fix to a safety hazard caused by reoccurring road slides.

The township association sponsors the statewide Road and Bridge Safety Improvement Contest each year in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association and the state Department of Transportation to recognize townships for their extensive contributions of time and effort in making roads safer.

South Buffalo Township was recognized for the cost-effective repair of two road slides on Northern Scenic Road, which is a primarily stabilized road located in the far northwest corner of the township. Its proximity to the township border caused neighboring North Buffalo Township to be affected as well.

The road serves as a residential throughway between both communities, is a school bus and mail route, has many homes and camps along it, and has some commercial use as a direct route to a small stone quarry.

Due to the makeup of the soil, saturating rains throughout the summer, and existing drainage issues, two areas of the road experienced major soil slides, making it impossible to travel safely. One slide was 150 feet in length with a vertical drop of about 30 feet from the top of the slope to the bottom; the other slide was 75 feet long with a vertical drop of about 20 feet.

The South Buffalo Township Board of Supervisors considered several alternatives before deciding on one. These options included narrowing the road’s width to one lane and erecting a barricade along the slide, closing the road and implementing a permanent detour, and making drainage alterations and replacing the fill that had slid.

The supervisors agreed that pursuing a permanent solution, although not as cost-effective as the other options, was in the township’s best interests.

The road slide problem was caused by underground water riding along the top of a coal seam beneath the roadbed, which created a slip plane. The township addressed the problem by constructing buttress fills to stabilize the toe of the slopes and eliminate the drainage problem causing the slip plane.

Construction required undercutting the roadway three to nine feet to level the road surface below the coal seam, placing underdrain along the high side of the roadway, and installing cross pipes to locations where the outlet water would not saturate the side slopes. Limestone and sandstone were used as backfill, and the side slopes were seeded and mulched to prevent erosion.

A variety of organizations and programs were responsible for making the project a success. PENNDOT’s Municipal Services and Geotechnical units assisted in the early stages. The township also received assistance from Armstrong County and adjacent property owners. All construction work was performed by township crews who used a rented excavator for the heavy digging.

“We had a lot help from several groups,” Terry Van Dyke, South Buffalo Township roadmaster, says. “We couldn’t have done the core boring and evaluation without PENNDOT’s assistance.”

“Though we did most of the actual labor on the project,” he says, “we couldn’t have done it all ourselves.”

The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors represents Pennsylvania’s 1,456 townships of the second class and for the past 83 years has been committed to preserving and strengthening township government and securing greater visibility and involvement for townships in the state and federal political arenas. Townships of the second class represent more residents — 5.1 million Pennsylvanians — than any other type of political subdivision in the commonwealth.

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Note: This news release and a downloadable photo of the award presentation also are posted at www.psats.org. Click on “Press Releases” under “News/Media Relations” on the left side of the home page.

Note: Ronald Covone, chairman of the South Buffalo Township Board of Supervisors, can be reached at (724) 295-0455.