Sunday, October 19, 2003

By John Vivirito Jr.

Rain has put a damper on McCandless' $898,000 Duncan Avenue extension project, but town Manager Tobias Cordek said the work is moving along.

The project will extend Duncan's western end to McKnight Road, completing a link between McKnight and Route 8.

"Due to rain delays, we've adjusted the schedule," Cordek said Tuesday. "We still plan on the end of the year as our completion goal for the grading, drainage and sewer work. If the weather is uncooperative from here on, we may cease work and continue in the spring.

"We're still within our target of opening the Duncan extension at the completion of the McKnight Road widening project."

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has agreed to widen McKnight to create turning lanes where Duncan will intersect with it, and also to install a traffic light. This portion of the construction carries a $3.2 million price tag, $2.6 million of which will be federal money with the McCandless Transportation District fund paying the rest.

That work was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but did not due to a delay in finalizing the contract.

"We hope the contractor can start on the McKnight Road work maybe by the end of the month," PennDOT's Brad Miller said Wednesday.

"The contract is not quite executed, and until it's executed, we can not give the contractor a notice on when to proceed," Miller said. "The bottom line for motorists traveling in the North Hills is that the activity won't begin until the end of the month."

The Duncan extension consists of about a 750-foot stretch of 60-foot-wide road. Duncan currently intersects Babcock Boulevard near La Roche College, then comes to a dead end in the Club at North Hills (formerly Lincoln Club) apartment complex.

Oakdale Construction Co. Inc. of Oakdale was awarded the $813,794 contract to extend Duncan. Cordek said the paving portion of the project, which is scheduled to begin in the spring, would cost an additional $85,000.

Oakdale began the project in July and had planned to be finished with the prep work by the end of November. The land has been cleared of trees and brush, and storm sewer work is in the works, Cordek said.

"Inclement weather certainly has been a problem," Bob Sepich, president of Oakdale Construction, said Wednesday. "We should be finished first of the year, depending on the weather."

McCandless is paying the cost of the Duncan Avenue extension. The commercially zoned land at the new intersection of Duncan and McKnight is undeveloped, and there are no immediate plans to extend Duncan Avenue to the west side of McKnight Road.

Nearly a decade ago, La Roche College, UPMC Passavant Hospital and several McCandless businesses formed a transportation district to help finance the Duncan-McKnight Road intersection work.

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