COVID-19 presents unique challenges for Pa. road construction

Like many other operations, road construction projects and other operations for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation have been tossed into uncharted waters because of the COVID-19 virus pandemic.

Under an order from Gov. Tom Wolf designed to slow the spread of the virus, the department has shut down all construction across the state and ordered as many workers as possible to work from home.

For District 11 executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni — who oversees Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties — that means not starting needed new projects worth more than $100 million and safely mothballing continuing projects that started in previous years.

“There are really a lot of moving parts right now,” Ms. Moon-Sirianni said last week.

That included making work-at-home arrangements for engineers, designers and specialists who monitor road conditions in the traffic management center; setting up skeleton crews for maintenance, sign repairs and safety inspection to keep working for emergencies while others will be paid to stay on call at home; and working with contractors about projects that are either shut down or won’t start.

“There’s so many details there, I can’t even tell you what all of them are yet,” Ms. Moon-Sirianni said.

The timing of the order in early March was fortunate, Ms. Moon-Sirianni said, because it occurred so early in the construction season. Some bridge and landslide remediation projects had started, but many continuing or new projects were still in their early stages.

So far, the easiest transition is for project designers to work from home, Ms. Moon-Sirianni said. Almost all of them already had equipment that allowed them to work remotely.

“That end of the business is continuing to move forward,” she said. “It’s going very, very well.”

Road maintenance needs can be a moving target, a point driven home on Friday, when heavy rain overnight caused flooding on several roads across Allegheny County.

“Allegheny County brought out additional foremen to assist crews [already on duty],” PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said. “Fortunately, the flooding was somewhat staggered and the crews were able to address the issues.

“However, we were ready to bring out additional crews if the situation worsened.”

The biggest unknown, of course, is how long the construction shutdown might last. A lengthy delay could cause a variety problems for different projects.

For example, paving projects could become problematic if they are pushed late into the year because they usually need warmer weather. A late start could push a project scheduled to be completed this season into next year.

In addition, some projects are dependent on the completion of other work. The department wants to begin work this summer on a two-year, $55 million project to improve the Route 28-Highland Park Bridge interchange, but that work can’t begin until crews finish a $13 million-$15 million paving project on Route 28 between Millvale and the Highland Park Bridge.

“We’re going to have to work through all of that,” Ms. Moon-Siriani said. “Every project is going to have its own personality and its own challenges to work out.”