Road Gives Away Beside Amwell Gas Drilling Site

Washington PA Observer Reporter
20 July 2010

AMITY – A natural gas exploration company is repairing a stretch of a country road that collapsed in a landslide last week in Amwell Township beside one of its drilling operations.

Range Resources Corp. of Fort Worth, Texas, took responsibility for the damages to Hackney Station Road and is overseeing the job, said Valerie Petersen, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation.

A third of the width of the road near Amity gave way the distance of about 50 feet beside the Kearney well site. The road was in poor condition before the site was being prepared for the drilling of 10 wells, a company representative at the scene said.

No one was injured when the road crumbled during the night. The road will be in much better condition when the repairs are completed in early August, he said.

Company spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the road is among several the company is repairing as the industry experiences massive growth in Washington County.

PennDOT was having problems with the road and neighbors had been complaining about its condition prior to Range arriving at the site, company spokesman Jim Cannon said Tuesday. Range was in the process of developing an access road from Hackney Station to the wells when the damage occurred.

“It was due to be fixed,” Cannon said.