Critchlow School Road remains closed after being washed out in spring storms.

FORWARD TWP — The impact of torrential rain in May and early June continues to affect at least one township in southwest Butler County as supervisors and crews work to fix road issues.

“We lost three roads in the storms,” said Supervisor Mel Musulin.

Of those roads, Critchlow School Road remains closed. The 1.6-mile stretch of road contains fewer than 20 homes.

Musulin explained how the township must await completion and results of a required hydrological study by engineers to determine the best culvert pipe to install.

He said the supervisors are doing their due diligence in performing all the preliminary tasks — such as the hydrological study — to maximize their chances of receiving a permit from the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

“We can't just dig a hole and drop a pipe in the ground,” Musulin said.

He explained the township received a grant to replace a failing culvert pipe on Buhl Road near Route 68, which the road crew was working on when rainstorms hit and washed out a section of Johns School Road.

“Water was never an issue there before,” Musulin said. “Because of the amount of water, the drainage changed direction.”

The township put Buhl Road on hold to bring in about 200 dump truckloads of shale to rebuild the collapsed section of Johns School Road.

“While we were in the process of doing that, we got hit with the second storm,” Musulin said.

That storm took out a section of Browns Mill Road and the 7-foot culvert pipe under Critchlow School Road washed out, collapsing the road surface and exposing the misplaced pipe.

Musulin said the slide at Browns Mill Road was then repaired, and will likely open in a few weeks. He added that projects at Buhl and Johns School roads are also complete.

Although the total cost for all three projects, plus the Buhl Road culvert, is about $500,000, supervisors are trying their best not to burden residents with the cost of road repairs necessitated by the storms.

“We are eligible for loans, but we are trying to be prudent for the taxpayers,” Musulin said.

The supervisors had a preliminary plan a few months ago to replace the Critchlow School Road culvert pipe after measuring the dislodged pipe, but were advised that DEP would likely not approve the same pipe that washed out.

In addition, once the township receives a permit from the DEP for the repair of Critchlow School Road, it will take six to eight weeks for the new culvert pipe to be delivered.

Even when the pipe arrives, road crew workers must put it together because it comes in sections. He said 1,000 bolts were needed just to connect the pipe on the Buhl Road project.

“Critchlow School Road is fairly low (traffic) volume, but it is an important road to us and we intend to fix it,” Musulin said. “We are doing everything in our power to get it done this year.”

He added that the Seneca Valley School District's transportation department is aware of the road closure and will work around it transporting students.

Musulin said shale gas impact fees paid directly to the township allowed the supervisors to pursue paving, culvert replacements and other road-related projects.

“Thank God for those impact fees,” Musulin said.

Regarding the extended closure at Critchlow School Road, Musulin said residents must leave the neighborhood either by accessing Valencia or Brownsdale roads for now.

“People think we are ignoring it, but we're doing the best we can,” Musulin said.