Vehicles on Meridian Road pass by in one lane after the bank along the road slid away from heavy rain on Friday, May 13 in Penn Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

While the road closure on Meridian Road in Penn Township’s Renfrew neighborhood continues to vex locals, experts from the state Department of Transportation say fixing the landslide that caused the southbound lane to collapse on May 9 is proving to be more tricky than expected.

Christina Gibbs, PennDOT District 10 spokeswoman, said on Monday additional surveys of the area of the slide, which is above the railroad tracks near the bottom of the hill leading to Renfrew, will begin within the next few weeks.

She said the additional surveys are necessary due to the ever-worsening collapse.

“With the slide continuing to expand, the additional surveys are needed to get a larger look at the area around the slide,” Gibbs said.

She said core borings extracted from the layers of earth at and around the slide have shown the soil is weak and a coal seam runs through the area.

“Combined with the steep slope and the location of the railroad, the situation is a complicated one,” Gibbs said.

Further core borings will be extracted after the additional surveys are complete, she said.

She said PennDOT officials remain in contact with managers from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as the process to analyze the slide and choose a method of repair plays out.

Deb Krelow, owner of the Hotel Beacon 1.7 miles away from the closure, said the inability of her customers to access the bar and restaurant from Meridian Road has affected her business more than the coronavirus pandemic.

“My food orders last week were down by 50%,” she said.

A bank on the side of Meridian Road is damaged in May due ot heavy rain in Penn Township. Joseph Ressler/Butler Eagle

She said her Christmas party on Saturday saw about half the attendance of previous years.

Many of her regulars who stop for a beer or two on the way home from work have disappeared because they are not willing to take PennDOT’s recommended detour onto Route 8 and Whitestown Road.

Krelow has been in touch with PennDOT officials regarding the situation, and understands a “Band-Aid” repair is impossible at the site.

“My point is (the road collapse) started in May,” Krelow said. “They’ve had months to correct this problem.“

She wonders why a crew was not dispatched immediately to divert the rain that would make the collapse worse over the summer and fall.

“A berming crew could have dug a ditch along the side of the road so the rain would have somewhere to go,” Krelow said.

She vowed to put unrelenting pressure on PennDOT officials regarding the situation in the interest of saving her longtime business.

“We’re closing at 10 p.m. now,” Krelow said.

Gibbs said PennDOT’s main concern in construction and maintenance projects or road closures is the traveling public.

“When we propose a detour, we try to keep the detour on state roads,” Gibbs said. “While these detours may increase travel time, they are deemed to be the safest detour available.”

She said if the road were not fixed properly, the slide would continue to recur until the actual issues were addressed.

“The road can’t be opened due to the safety concerns of motorists traveling through what would be a very narrow lane once barriers are set,” Gibbs said. “With the width available, it would also not allow for winter maintenance because the lane would be narrower than our plows.

“This would create a very dangerous situation, and that is not something anyone wants.”

Gibbs said she could not give a prospective date of reopening or a cost amount, as data on the landslide is still being gathered.