The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

July 18, 2012

Town contemplates worst-case scenarios

By Joy Leiker The Herald

WEST MIDDLESEX — Emergency officials are creating worst-case scenario disaster plans for next week when an explosives company searches for and removes any decades-old dynamite that might be buried near the West Middlesex viaduct.

Mayor David G. George Jr. told the borough council Tuesday night that plans are developing for the July 26 excavation of five crates of dynamite that are believed to have been buried before the current viaduct was built in 1941.

The viaduct and Main Street will closeto traffic at 8 a.m. that day and crews will begin digging at 9 a.m.

Eighty years after it was believed buried at the site, the dynamite has become a safety concern because Penn DOT plans to tear down and rebuild the viaduct.

No one knows if the construction work might aggravate the explosives, which PennDOT believes were buried in a cellar and covered with dirt in the 1930s.

As a result, PennDOT, along with a team of explosives experts and emergency personnel are planning for every possibility – everything from searchers not finding the explosives, to items being found and how they will have to be removed and destroyed.

On Tuesday the mayor said he and borough secretary Tammy Garrett visited local businesses to alert them of the plans.

Businesses will be allowed to open that day.

 If searchers do find dynamite, businesses and residents may be subject to evacuation.

George said the evacuations could be limited to a 300-foot radius, or could extend to as much as 1,000 feet, which would stretch over State Route 18 and include the borough’s administration building and fire station, which will serve as one of two control centers.

Using 1,000 feet as the measuring stick, Garrett said, “We’re going to evacuate up to the school.”

But it’s also possible no one will need to be evacuated. The contractor, Reactive Explosive Materials Training Corp. of New Jersey, and the Allegheny County Bomb Squad have indicated they won’t know more until the cartons are found and opened so any dynamite can be inspected.

Garrett said she’s compiling a list of residents to be evacuated, and also identifying any that would require assistance to leave their homes.

The mayor said business owners and operators he talked to Tuesday were appreciative of the early heads up, and several said they planned to reschedule trucks of supply shipments to either the day before or day after the dynamite search.

“We’ll let the businesses open up to operate,” George said.

“If nothing’s there, then let them be.”

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