Officials from Harmar and Curtiss-Wright are discussing the possibility of building an emergency access road to a hilltop community only accessible via one road.
Curtiss-Wright’s Electro-Mechnical Division sits on a 120-acre plot located between Low Grade Road and Route 28, and south of the Springdale-Tarentum interchange of Route 28.
The company, based in North Carolina, provides specialty components mainly for the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries.
“We’re in negotiations with Curtis-Wright for an emergency road through their property,” said Harmar Engineer Matt Pitsch said at a recent township meeting.
Pitsch did not specify the route of the proposed access road and did not respond to several TribLive attempts to reach him.
Currently, there is only one way to access several township streets — including Florian Drive, Plum Lane, Clyde Avenue and Locust Street — and that’s by way of steep Ridge Road to Low Grade Road.
Pitsch said the emergency access road is needed to allow the residents of about 35 homes located along those streets to be able to get in and out of that neighborhood in the event of an emergency.
He said that need was clearly illustrated several years ago when a landslide blocked part of Ridge Road, narrowing it to one lane of traffic.
To this point, the land survey and preliminary plans have been completed, Pitsch said, clearing the way to begin negotiations.
“So far, the negotiations have gone well,” he said.
Curtiss-Wright Vice President for Investor Relations Jim Ryan said he believed the negotiations date back more than a year, but he said he couldn’t offer any timeline for the project’s potential completion.