A developer and contractor are faced with moving a small mountain at the Route 65 shopping plaza construction site, where a landslide has blocked the highway and a major railroad.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation wants to know what they plan to do and how fast they plan to do it.

"We've asked them to give us a tentative timetable in the next day," PennDOT District 11 spokesman Jim Struzzi said yesterday. The road, in a busy suburban corridor, is used by 22,000 vehicles on a typical day.

While clearing has been taking place round-the-clock since after midnight Tuesday, when the hillside first began giving way, reopening the highway through Kilbuck remains days away, and possibly a week away, Mr. Struzzi said. "The landslide has slowed down but it's still coming down."

Pittsburgh-based ASC Development Inc. has told PennDOT that by tonight more heavy-duty equipment will arrive and join the effort aimed at getting the slide under control. One of the first tasks will be clearing the Norfolk Southern Railway tracks below Route 65. Rocks and dirt blocked three sets of tracks, delaying scores of trains on the carrier's mainline.

Mr. Struzzi said the excavation equipment will include Caterpillar D8 bulldozers that are among the biggest ones made. Nicknamed "Mountain Movers," they're 42-ton behemoths with 16-foot-wide blades.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, said he directed his department heads to provide whatever assistance they can to local officials dealing with the landslide.

The county has already sent several all-terrain vehicles, emergency floodlights and its mobile command post to the site. He also said the county would provide police to assist with traffic control.

"We're looking at this as a two-stage approach," Mr. Onorato said. "Our first priority is to get the road open and that hillside stablized. Second, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. What permits were issued, what did the developer do, and how did this happen? But our main priority is getting the road reopened."

Mr. Onorato, speaking at a news briefing near the landslide last night, said he considered it vital to get the road and the railroad tracks reopened as quickly as possible. "Every minute the railroad is closed is a big economic hit," he said.

Engineers estimated that at least 500,000 cubic feet of dirt and boulders have shifted and come down the hillside, mostly fill being placed to create an expansive plateau for a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a strip of small retail shops and a large parking lot.

The River Pointe Plaza project, which drew community opposition up until construction started in March, sits on the site of the former Dixmont State Hospital, near Interstate 79. Chevy Chase Construction is ASC's contractor.

"They understand the importance of cleaning this up as soon as possible," Mr. Struzzi said. "They have been cooperative, but we're still pushing them."

The developer and its insurance carriers will have to bear the costs of the cleanup as well as stabilizing the hillside against future landslides.

Representatives of Communities First!, a citizens group that has opposed the project since it was announced in 2002, said they have warned township and state officials from the start of the potential for such a landslide because of the steep slope.

Those objections, raised in a report by the group's consultant, Victor-Wetzel Associates of Sewickley, were repeatedly ignored, said the group's co-chairman, Bob Keir of Avalon. He said Kilbuck officials approved a variance of standard slope controls to enable the project to proceed.

"We all knew the chance of a landslide was pretty high," Mr. Keir said, "but Kilbuck Township gave the grading permit, and [the state Department of Environmental Protection] gives approval based on Kilbuck's approval. It's the domino effect, and then PennDOT gives approval."

Efforts by Communities First! to thwart the project in court have been unsuccessful.

The Kilbuck municipal offices were closed yesterday, which is standard on Thursdays, and attempts to reach township officials at their homes were unsuccessful. The township's engineer, Marie Hartman, declined comment when reached at her office at Widmer Engineering Inc. in Connellsville.

DEP spokeswoman Betsy Mallison said the department defers to the township on sloping issues, but it approved permits and plans at various stages for soil and erosion control, blasting, pollutant discharge elimination and sewage control.

She said department inspectors will be checking blasting records for any possible effect, and will make sure a trench used in erosion and sediment controls is put back in place before any construction work resumes. DEP received some calls from the public about blasting that took place around the site this week.

"I don't think anyone has information yet on what the cause might be," she said.

The mass of earth and rocks at the site was 500 feet wide. At one point, Ohio River Boulevard was buried under 30 feet of debris. Motorists have been forced onto slow-moving alternate routes and the designated detour using Camp Horne Road, Mount Nebo Road and I-79.

"They're trying to push away dirt that's still on top of the hill off to the side," Mr. Struzzi said. "This will alleviate the pressure and help control the slide. Then they can address the rest of the big pile of dirt on the boulevard."

PennDOT issued a highway occupancy permit to ASC despite opposition from Communities First!. The permit spelled out plans for a new intersection, including left-turn standby lanes and traffic signals, and maintenance and protection of traffic during construction. Otherwise, PennDOT had no responsibilities beyond its right of way.

Nevertheless, Mr. Struzzi said it's possible that PennDOT could revoke the permit, eliminating the access that ASC needs to the development site and thereby scuttling the project.

"Obviously, that's something we have the power to do," he said. "That's our hammer. As long as they cooperating and cleaning up and reopening the highway, that's our priority."

ASC has agreed to pick up the cost of off-duty police to assist with traffic at key detour intersections and other places in proximity to the landslide site, Mr. Struzzi said.

"That has already helped alleviate some of the congestion," he said.

First Published: September 22, 2006, 4:00 a.m.