Edgeworth officials approve Beaver Road wall replacement contract

Edgeworth officials are moving forward with a long-awaited repair project along Beaver Road.

The falling stone wall that supports the road between Church and Edgeworth lanes will be fixed and a new sidewalk installed.

Access Limited Construction of Bethel Park, considered to be rockfall mitigation and steep slope specialists, was awarded the contract.

Council awarded a contract of about $580,800 on Aug. 20. Councilwomen Rebecca Cartus and Katherine Larsen were absent.

Borough Manager John Schwend said Access Limited was the lowest of two bidders. This will be the company’s first borough project.

Construction is expected to begin within the next month or two and be completed by the end of the year.

The wall has been in shambles for years. Its sidewalk and roadway remained open.

Concerns have grown due to the gas, water and telephone lines underneath.

“This is very important work,” Schwend said. “I’m very glad we were able to get a contractor in place who can do this and put it behind us. It’s a project that we’ve been talking about extensively for the last six or seven years, but has been discussed the past 15 years.”

A new sidewalk and handrail will be installed in addition to road stabilization and wall repairs. Some trees will also need to be removed and replanted.

“This is really a great project to get done here,” Schwend said.

Previous estimates had repairs costing nearly $1.6 million.

Ivan Hofmann, public safety chair and council vice president, said Schwend, public works and borough engineers Lennon Smith Souleret Engineering “sharpened our pencil” to get costs down.

“We got a really good price for it, and a really good contractor to do the work,” Hofmann said. “We’re really excited about it. It’s going to be real nice.”

Council is also pleased to have approved a contract before it became an emergency.

“If that wall would have caved, it would have cut off communications in all the surrounding area because all the cables for telephone go underneath that road and it would have severed those cables,” Hofmann said. “This was a big deal.”

Edgeworth received a $452,000 grant through the state Department of Community & Economic Development’s Local Share Account program to help pay for the project.

The borough also received cooperation from nearby residents to go on to their private property as part of the project.