Flooding shuts down portion of Stavich Bike Trail

Staff report

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

Heavy summer rainfall has taken its toll on the portion of the Stavich Bike Trail that runs 101/2 miles from Struthers to New Castle, Pa.

A section of the trail between Covert Road and Fording Road in Union Township, Pa., in Lawrence County, closed Wednesday due to run-off sediment from flooding.

Doniele Russell, deputy director of Community Planning for Lawrence County, estimates the closed section will reopen sometime in August. She said approximately $150,000 of repairs to the county section are necessary, including repaving the trail, replacing a wall and replacing a guardrail.

Flooding also affected the Ohio portion of the trail. A section of the trail, near Lowellville High School at 52 Rocket Place, closed Wednesday after the storm, but has since reopened, said village Administrator Bill Meehan.

The Stavich Bike Trail, which runs along a former electric trolley line, opened in 1983 thanks to donations from the Stavich family.

The Stavich brothers founded Calex Corp., an aluminum processing company, in 1952.