With Inclined Plane project stalled, Westmont Borough looks to reopen Edgehill Drive

Russ O Reilly, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

May 15—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Edgehill Drive in Westmont Borough has been closed for nearly four years, overtaken by machinery used in the now-stalled rehabilitation of the Cambria County Transit Authority's Johnstown Inclined Plane.

Westmont Borough Council has decided that people who live around Edgehill Drive and visitors struggling to access Asiago's Tuscan Italian restaurant and the Westmont Grove recreation center have put up with the closure for long enough.

"I think we should tell (CamTran) that we are reopening the road," Councilman Tim McIlwain said at Tuesday's council meeting.

The Inclined Plane will not reopen this year, CamTran said last week, citing the time required to re-manufacture key components including wheels, followed by six months of system testing, recertification and inspection, and operator training and testing.

Council President Marc McCall relayed information from CamTran Tuesday; he said CamTran would "partially open" Edgehill Drive while wheels for the Inclined Plane are being remanufactured.

But McIlwain said Westmont Borough, not CamTran, owns the road and should reopen it completely.

"The whole Inclined Plane project has been a travesty so far," McIlwain said. "It's our responsibility to say we are going to open the road. When they are ready to begin working again on putting the wheels back up on the Inclined Plane, we will be a good partner and close the road again. We want this project done as much as anyone else."

Borough Solicitor Michael Parrish agreed that the borough council is ultimately in control of opening the road and setting a fair timeframe for CamTran to move the equipment, but he warned the council that there may be specific legal grounds for CamTran to keep it closed.

"I don't envision it being an issue, given where they are at with construction," he said.

The borough council Tuesday unanimously authorized Parrish to express the council's intention to CamTran's solicitor and to work with CamTran to set terms agreeable to both parties for moving all equipment from Edgehill Drive while work on the Inclined Plane is halted.

The Inclined Plane's upper station is located on Edgehill Drive; the funicular railway connects Westmont to downtown Johnstown.