Busy Moon Township road to close until further notice due to landslide

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two weeks ago, a hillside behind six homes in Moon Township started crumbling, and it looks like more land will shift in the near future if the area is not stabilized. PennDOT implemented a single lane closure on Beaver Grade Road just off of Montour Road.

But on Friday morning beginning at 10 a.m., PennDOT plans to close Beaver Grade between Montour Run Road and Duckhorn Road. This section of Beaver Grade Road will be closed until further notice.

“I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” said Ed Breault.

The land behind six homes in the Sonoma Ridge neighborhood is sliding towards Beaver Grade Road.

>> Traffic restricted on busy Moon Township road due to landslide

Ed Breault owns one of those homes and recorded video on Thursday morning showing more of the hill behind his house falling.

“I’ve been taking pictures for the last three and a half years of it moving,” said Breault.

He says he first saw signs of a landslide in 2020 and reported it. Then in 2022, Breault says he saw even more movement.

“Projects like this I know are millions of dollars and at that point it’s like whose problem is it,” said Breault. “Who wants to solve it. Who wants to be the first to invest. And that didn’t happen.”

PennDOT sent a letter to the homeowners saying they have 28 days to submit a remediation plan, and if they don’t respond, PennDOT would do the work to mitigate the landslide and send a bill to the property owners.

“We want to get details about what exactly is going to happen and who will be responsible for this,” said Ranjith Kundarapu. “Is it going to be like Heartland Homes or anyone else?”

PennDOT is currently collecting soil samples along the road and will move to the impact backyards to collect samples as well. Meanwhile, engineering firms and lawyers for the HOA and the residents will be brought into this next.

“A lot of the communication have been just sort of letters,” said Breault. “Official letters of what’s been going on. But we don’t really understand the total magnitude of the project and the problem. That’s giving us a lot of panic I would say of what are we going to do and are we financially responsible for paying for a multi-million dollar project. We just don’t know what the future looks like.

In a statement, PennDOT said:

PennDOT is actively working with the community and homeowners association to decide the best path forward to stabilize the slope on Beaver Grade Road. The department has a slope easement in this location which allows us to act to protect our roadway. PennDOT is open to discussions with affected parties and has not determined responsibility at this time as investigation into this slide continues.

Channel 11 also reached out Heartland Homes. Our request for comment were not immediately answered.

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