Murrysville officials approved maintenance agreements last week with driller Olympus Energy to build temporary infrastructure connecting its fracking operations in Westmoreland County.

The agreements cover the use of a small section of Thompson Road, as well as a little over a mile of Logan Ferry, Hankey Church and Beighley roads, in order to construct two temporary water lines and two gas lines.

One water line will support operations at Olympus’s Athena well pad in Washington Township. The other, along with the gas lines, will connect the Hephaestus well pad in Upper Burrell to the Hermes well pad on the border of Murrysville and Plum, according to Olympus spokesperson Jennifer Hoffman.

“The bond is for the use of the roads, in case truck traffic should damage it,” Murrysville Chief Administrator Michael Nestico said.

Nestico said the construction phase will include five to 10 trucks bringing in equipment; 60-65 trucks bringing in pipeline over a two-week period; 10-15 passenger trucks per day during construction, and one or two trucks per day transporting pipe and materials where they are needed.

Hoffman said construction is likely to begin sometime in March.

“In talking with our engineer, I didn’t get the impression that this is a big, substantial project,” Nestico said. “It doesn’t look like it will have too much of an impact once the pipe is trucked in.”

Council unanimously approved both maintenance agreements.

Pickleball parking

Council also approved an adjustment to the number of required parking spaces for a pickleball facility on Mellon Road.

Murrysville’s zoning ordinance requires one parking space for every 100 square feet of a building. The proposed Pickleball Harbor athletic club is just over 14,000 square feet, which equates to 143 parking spaces.

“That seemed like a bit of overkill,” Nestico said.

Owners Bill and Jillian Bateman-McIntosh said they want to create a climate-controlled facility with six courts — two built to USA Pickleball tournament specifications — a pro shop and more.

The facility would function much like a membership-based gym, where users would have regular access via a keycard. Membership information is available at PickleballHarbor.com.

Nestico said a traffic study presented to municipal officials proposed 50 parking spaces, which Murrysville planning commissioners also discussed at their meeting in early February.

“The courts are based on a schedule, with a calendar of when people are going to play,” Nestico said. “They indicated that (50 spaces) would be more than sufficient for their needs.”

Councilman Jason Lemak asked if the facility might be used for activities other than pickleball that might affect the parking situation.

“Not under my leasing agreement,” Bill McIntosh said. “It’s pickleball only.”

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