Mt. Lebanon Residents Want Brick Roads; Commissioners Consider Costs

Ten miles of brick roads in Mount Lebanon might soon be repaved with asphalt, but residents and the local historical society are protesting.

“A lot of people like the bricks, but they’re just so old and worn,” Coraopolis Manager Ray McCutcheon told the Tribune-Review. “It’s just too expensive.”

Commissioners chose a bid for sewer work and road construction on Mapleton Avenue that will replace the brick with asphalt, priced at $2.63 million. Other bids that would have preserved and cleaned the existing brick road, or put in new bricks, would have cost between $30,000 and $40,000 more, according to Manager Steve Feller.

However the brick roads have been seen as an asset in residents’ property value.

“The brick streets, they give our neighborhoods character, and preserving them is key to preserving the historical nature of those neighborhoods,” Comissioner John Bendel said. Bendel voted against the contract.

PennDOT plans to reconstruct Castle Shannon Boulevard next year, but the Mt. Lebanon Historic Preservation Board is asking them to consider saving the brick.

Bendel suggests that the commission compare long-term costs of brick roads to asphalt ones: brick may last longer than asphalt before needing to be resurfaced.