A highly used short cut through the hills in Beaver County is now closed off after the wet weekend weather had part of the road collapse and slide.
Wildwood Road links Route 51 and Dutch Ridge Road in Brighton Township, and now, for the residents and businesses in the district, the closure will become an epic nightmare.
One of the fire stations, though, isn’t too concerned about the shutdown, but drivers will now have a 5-to-10 minute detour who have been using it as a shortcut.
The heavy rains led to the massive landslide on Wildwood Road, knocking down several large trees as well as part of the road itself. PennDOT has now closed the road, and it will be a huge inconvenience for Allegheny Valley School, a group home for individuals with developmental disabilities.
“It looks like the road is caving in, which is not good because it’s all hillside,” said Donna Todd, a director support professional at Merakey Allegheny Valley School.
Todd is glad that they can still get to the hospital, Heritage Valley Beaver, not far away on Dutch Ridge Road.
“It’s sort of a need to have that road,” she said. “I’m sure the residents who live on that road are likely pretty frustrated with it too.”
Mark Lindauere has noticed issues here in the past.
“It fell off 7, 8, 9 years ago, they’ve patched it up with those big cobblestones,” he said.
PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said the landslide occurred Saturday and now they’re assessing the hillside to find out how to repair it.
“They fixed it up good, but I guess too much rain,” Lindauere said. “We’ve had a lot of rain and a cold winter with all the freezing and thawing. All that sort of stuff took its toll. It’s going to be tough because it’s a cliff. It really drops off fast. I don’t know how they’re going to fix it.”
We contacted the CEO of Heritage Valley to find out if the ambulances would be impacted, and he indicated that Wildwood is a detour route, but they shouldn’t experience any effects from the closure.
