Shenango and Hickory Township 2019

Shenango Township

Work on Chewton West Pittsburg Road in Shenango Township continued. This project was a continuation of efforts started in 2018 with upgrades made to the drainage on the site. Work in 2019 and planned work in 2020 will continue the conversion of an unstable aging chip seal surface over to a more sustainable aggregate surface.

Following installation of cross pipes, headwalls and outlet stabilization our office and the municipality, working with contracted labor from Youngblood Paving, placed over 1600 linear feet of a specialized limestone blend called Driving Surface Aggregate (DSA) onto a prepared road surface this spring. Crews “chewed” up the road with a piece of equipment called a road reclaimer and mixed in aggregate to allow for grading and establishment of a new road profile. The DSA was then placed in a six-inch lift ran through a paver and compacted by the Township road crew. Conversion of the road should allow for a longer maintenance cycle and less erosion to the adjacent waterway.  The District through the State Conservation Commission and the Pa Center for Dirt and Gravel Roads have already committed $85,000 with another $70,000 planned in the spring of 2020. Shenango Township through in-kind use of equipment and labor has supported the efforts with $30,000 of contribution to the projects.

Hickory Township

In the last five years, the District has begun to work with municipalities to install better in stream culverts that allow for connection with the stream system including the grade and width of the channel.

Working with our municipal partners we installed our first upgraded structure in the fall of 2018. However, despite our best efforts, erosion from the overwhelming rain events resulted in damage in summer 2019 to the new culvert pipe installed in Hickory Township near Reiber’s Lane on Lakewood Neshannock Falls Road. A microburst storm produced enough rain to swell the small stream into a whirlpool of erosive force that moved a portion of the steam bank on the upstream side of the newly installed arch culvert.

The District consulted with technical staff from the Center for Dirt and Gravel Roads and assisted the Township with stabilization of the culvert wing wall that was damaged in the storm by installing a modified mud sill. Mud sills may be adapted to various site conditions but include the anchoring of timbers/logs into the bank and stream bottom and provide stable high-water protection.

Municipal forces in the Township were able to restore the erosion damage with no impact the stream and the modified mud sill will hopefully need little to no maintenance in years to come.  Although not funded by the DGLVR program, these types of efforts demonstrate that our municipal partners are investing and buying into the environmentally sensitive solutions that the program advocates.

 

Damage from a microburst storm.

Placement of face logs to secure the stream bank with minimal disturbance to the stream flow.