PENNSYLVANIA City considers its options for part of old Lamor Road

The old road could provide access to a proposed trail through the ravine.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- The city is looking at taking ownership of a section of Lamor Road that the state will abandon as part of a highway improvement project.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is planning a $3 million project to eliminate a sharp double S-curve on Lamor just west of Pa. Route 18.
That half-mile section of two-lane blacktop drops 75 feet into a narrow ravine, crosses Pine Hollow Run on a narrow bridge and then climbs back out of the ravine.
PennDOT plans to raise the road elevation, straighten out the highway and put in a new bridge.
City Manager Gary Hinkson said PennDOT has informed the city that it intends to leave the old road on the west side of the ravine intact so the city can maintain access to a sewer pump station at the ravine's bottom.
The PennDOT plan was to tear out the old bridge and the old road on the east side of the ravine, but the city might want to take over both, Hinkson said.
Commissioners discussed that possibility at a meeting Thursday and have questions about the viability of the old bridge and the road that they want PennDOT to answer, he said.
There are tentative city plans to put a bike-hike trail along Pine Hollow Run through that area, and the old road could make a good access route, Hinkson said.
In other business, commissioners:
UAssigned a $406,362 federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Hermitage Municipal Authority to help defray the cost of sanitary sewer improvements on South Darby Road and Daniel Drive.
USupported amendments to the charter of the Shenango Valley Enterprise Zone Corp. to expand zone boundaries to include portions of West Middlesex, Shenango Township and Hempfield Township for the first time. Those amendments include a proposal to expand the zone area in Hermitage to include the city's LindenPointe planned technical park on Route 18.