O’HARA, Pa. — The safety of more than 80 riverfront residents is at risk because of what township officials on Monday called an underhanded move by Norfolk Southern Railroad officials, the Tarentum Valley News Dispatch reported.
They said railroad officials, without notice, closed the intersection of Old Freeport Road and an acess road that crosses Norfolk and Southern tracks and leads into Residence of the Docks, a 398-unit housing complex under construction. The entrance, blocked by oversized signs and orange barrels, leads to one of only two access roads to the Fox Chapel Yacht Club and Fox Chapel Marine, where more than 300 boats are docked.
“This is a clear danger for people,” said state Rep. Jeff Habay, R-Shaler, who called a news conference at the site Monday. “They are forced to use an access at the opposite end which merges with traffic from Route 28.”
The township filed an emergency injunction with the state Public Utility Commission to open the intersection. Habay said he expects to hear from the PUC within 15 days.
Norfolk Southern representatives were not immediately available for comment.
The railroad crossing has been the subject of meetings over three years during which Continental Communities, developers of the riverfront community, committed to spending $140,000 to upgrade the site with gates and flashing lights.
“We’ve been turned down since the first day,” said Mabon Lichtenfels, regional project manager for Continental Communities. “They said the crossing is unsafe, but won’t let us improve it.”
Township officials decided to forge ahead with plans for upgrades by filing a petition with the PUC last month. In the meantime, Norfolk Southern filed a suit in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas seeking to close the crossing. The court ruled against the railroad, and deferred it to the PUC, according to Lichtenfels.
“The railroad took matters into their own hands,” said Dave Maxwell, owner of Fox Chapel Marine. “It was an act of vigilantism.”
Maxwell said he was concerned for the safety of his clients and employees, who are forced to use the Fairview Road access. Fairview empties onto Old Freeport Road in a three-way merge with traffic that exits from the ramp of Route 28.
“People come off there at 60 miles an hour,” Maxwell said. The closure also hinders river rescue teams that use his marina, he said.
More than a dozen township officials who attended Monday’s news conference pointed at public safety, since the closed crossing sits directly in front of Guyasuta Fire Company. The roadblock impedes the fire department from having immediate access to the riverfront community that is expected to someday house more than 1,000 residents. Bob Robinson, township solicitor, said he did not know if there was a township regulation that required Norfolk and Southern officials to contact the township.
“Other than common sense and courtesy, I’m not aware of one,” he said.
Jim Zaenger, O’Hara Council vice president and member of the township’s auxiliary police, said the move was an “incredibly bad engineering and financial decision.”
“It was a morally deficient move,” he said.
Lichtenfels cited two documents that might prove that railroad officials acted illegally; an 1893 deed that transfers ownership of three railroad crossings to the landowner and a private license agreement that provides use of the crossings to the landowner and his tenants.
In the week since the crossing was blocked, Lichtenfels said traffic to his leasing office also has shut down.
“Our $28 million project is at risk,” he said.