Another closing of Logans Ferry Road in Plum to detour thousands for up to 3 months
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Work to repair a landslide will close a section of Logans Ferry Road in Plum for up to three months.
The stretch between Entrance Drive and Columbia Road, near the border of Plum and New Kensington, tentatively is scheduled to close beginning Aug. 2.
PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said, if the project starts then, it will run through mid-October. Plum Contracting, which will be performing the work, said in a letter that they anticipate the road being reopened by the end of October.
Mark Mills, the project manager with Plum Contracting, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Cowan said the work will consist of repairing a landslide on Logans Ferry Road. It will include excavation, placing rock, installing new drainage and asphalt paving between Entrance Drive and Columbia Road.
An average of 11,300 vehicles travel the affected area of Logans Ferry Road every day, according to PennDOT.
The detour will use Route 366 (Greensburg Road), Old Leechburg Road and Sardis Road to get around the closure. That route is about 8 miles.
Cowan could not say Wednesday whether there will be separate detours for passenger cars and trucks.
Plum police Chief Lanny Conley said drivers using the detour and not familiar with those roads should be prepared for navigating Logans Ferry, which becomes Sardis, because it is a winding road and can become confusing.
Conley said some GPS units will send vehicles down Webster Road — but it’s a dead end. Webster has long been closed because of a slide with no access to Greensburg Road.
“It needs to be done to make the travel way a safer place,” the chief said. “We’ve been through this before. The first week or two, people are going to be fed up with it, but then it will become second nature.”
Drivers contended with closures in that area last year, in 2019 and in 2017.
• In 2021, Coxcomb Hill Road was closed between Logans Ferry and Kerr roads while crews worked on the shoulder of the road.
• In 2019, traffic was restricted to a single, alternating lane on Logans Ferry Road while the bridge over Pucketa Creek near Columbia Road was replaced.
• In 2017, Logans Ferry was closed between Entrance Drive and Columbia Road while a bridge over a coal mine railroad spur was removed and filled in under the state’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Program.
“Here we go again,” said Dale Fleming, owner of Fleming’s Service & Parts on Logans Ferry at Entrance Drive. “I figured I’m good until I retired, and now this.”
Usually, Fleming said, where he has been for 37 years is a great location. Except in times like this.
“It really makes it hard because 75% of my work comes from that direction — and 75% of my parts,” he said, referring to the New Kensington area. “They’re making my life miserable.
“I know it has to be done, but, wow.”
Fleming said he knew about the closure two to three months ago. Cowan said PennDOT will be putting out its formal news release next week once the schedule is confirmed.
Fleming said he hopes his customers will use the detour and keep visiting him.
“There is no other answer to that question,” he said.