Sulphur Run storm water improvements expected to ease Derry Township flooding

Crews this week are restoring a Derry Township intersection after installing larger, updated storm sewers meant to help alleviate flooding along Sulphur Run, near the border of Latrobe.

Under a contract with the township, Northrock Construction of St. Marys replaced a large section of aging pipe that carries Sulphur Run beneath the intersection of Raymond Avenue and Montana Street. The contractor also updated several inlets and smaller pipes to better direct storm water into the stream.

Workers have begun to restore excavated areas and, weather permitting, hope to replace curbs and pave the affected section of street by the end of the week, according to David Lemmon, field inspector for Gibson-Thomas Engineering, the township’s consultant.

He said the contractor likely will have to return in the springfor more paving, but that won’t prevent reopening of the intersection, which has been closed for more than a year.

The intersection was closed out of concern about heavy traffic passing over the deteriorating infrastructure, township Supervisor Dave Slifka said.

“We were having heavy truck traffic there,” Slifka said. “It would have been OK if they had stayed at the 8 ton weight limit, but you can’t sit there the whole time and watch it.”

The Raymond Avenue storm improvement project is expected to cost about $205,000, with the township tapping Act 13 funding it receives through state impact fees collected from developers of Marcellus shale gas wells.

While the majority of the project is located in the township, Latrobe is expected to chip in some money toward the cost, according to township Supervisor Vince DeCario.

Flooding has been an ongoing problem in the neighborhood along Sulphur Run. “Last year was the worst because of all the rain,” DeCario said. “That’s why we knew something had to be done.”

Elaine Bates, who has lived at the corner of Raymond and Montana for five years, is anxious to see proper restoration of areas of her yard that have been torn up during the construction. But she noted that the storm sewer improvements were sorely needed.

During the worst recent flooding, in June 2018, she said, she had about one inch of water in her basement — minor compared to what some other residents experienced.

Still, she said, “My yard was very damaged, and we had to replace topsoil at an enormous cost, to build the yard back up to try to protect our home against any further flooding.”

Over the years, she said, “residents have lost articles in their basements, appliances, carpeting, and houses have shifted, and concrete walls and floors have cracked.”

Lemmon said storm water flows along Sulphur Run should be improved with replacement of 150 feet of the pipe that encloses the stream. The aging pipe, which measured 46 inches wide and 36 inches high, was replaced with a larger corrugated pipe that should be more durable. The new pipe is 57 inches wide and 38 inches high, Lemmon said.

The contractor placed rip rap to shore up the stream bed and embankment just downstream from Montana Street, supplementing a wall of tires previously installed by a property owner.

Slifka said the township hopes to make an even greater impact on the area’s flooding problems with proposed development of a retention pond on property the township is purchasing from the Eastern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center, off Route 982, and a second pond to be sited above Saxman Run.

A $250,000 state grant, derived from fines levied for permit violations during construction of the Mariner East II pipeline for natural gas, will help pay for the pond near the technology center, Slifka said.