Published: July 11, 2008 11:34 pm         

Accident closes part of Route 22

EBENSBURG — A portion of Route 22 east of Ebensburg was closed early Friday because of a downed power line, snarling traffic into the early afternoon when it reopened, and then was closed again in the evening.

The first closure of the highway, between the East Ebensburg and Munster interchanges, began with an early morning accident at a construction site.

The second closure was necessary for Penelec to install a new permanent pole and restore power to all 28 customers affected, officials said.

In both cases, motorists were detoured onto a circuitous route that included part of old Route 22, a narrow and winding road over the mountain.

Such an electrical accident is “extremely rare,” said Penelec spokesman Denny Platt, and it’s made tougher when it involves a limited-access highway.

“Things were obviously complicated by the fact that the power lines were across a four-lane highway,” he said.

“We had 28 customers out of power, and we restored where we could. But there were still 17 customers out until we could re-energize the line,” Platt said.

“PennDOT asked that we wait until 6 p.m. for them to close the road again, and we did.”

The problem began with the accident at a construction site. Then that situation was complicated by an unrelated three-vehicle accident at 5:30 a.m. on Old Route 22, also in a construction area, as a motorist tried to get onto Route 22 to head east, Cambria Township police reported.

The traffic tie-up was caused when a construction vehicle of the contractor, New Enterprise Stone & Lime Co., was lifting a barrier and hit a power line, said Tara Callahan, spokeswoman for PennDOT’s District 9 office.

The line fell onto the highway.

Detours were set up for both east- and westbound traffic between the East Ebensburg and the Summit interchanges.

PennDOT message boards were put in place to direct traffic while the power lines were being removed from the road.

In the other accident, an Ebensburg teen was transported to Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown after his station wagon hit one pickup and then spun into a second pickup on Old Route 22.

He was identified as 19-year-old Jessy Orgis. Information was not available from the hospital on Friday.

Patrolman Nathan Stohon identified the other drivers as Glenn Davis, 45, of Tyrone, who was driving a truck owned by New Enterprise, and David Altimus, 27, of Strongstown, who was driving a truck owned by J.C. Ehrlich Co.

     

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.