Vehicles on Meridian Road pass by in one lane after the bank along the road slid away from last weekend’s 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 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.

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