Booming Business
South Fayette
company
continues
to shape the
future of new
landscapes.
by Earl Bugaile
28 724.942.0940 to advertise | South Fayette
I
t would be quite easy to say that business is
“booming” for Senex Explosives Company.
Yet, out of this unobtrusive block structure
located along Miller’s Run Road in South
Fayette, Senex has been changing landscapes
in all parts of the United States by helping
contractors and builders create new buildings,
highways, transit terminals and virtually
moving mountains for many years.
Established in 1992, from a company
formerly known as H.L. & A.G. Balsinger,
Inc., Senex staff have been involved in the
development of the site of the Midfield
Terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport.
They have also assisted in the construction of
the Allegheny County Port Authority transit
tunnels between Mt. Lebanon and Dormont.
Senex has also completed highway projects
for PennDOT, PA Turnpike Commission, the
West Virginia Department of Transportation,
and others. It has recently completed site
preparation for a 1.9 billion dollar power plant
in Wise County, Virginia, and in the last two
years, worked with CSX Transportation to
open rail tunnels in Somerset County, as part
of the CSX National Gateway. The CSX project
will allow the rail carrier to haul double stack
container trains between the ports of the East
Coast to Chicago and the Midwest.
“The most challenging and memorable
project of my career,” is how Senex General
Manager Dale L. Ramsey described the rail
project which took place over a two-year
period between 2011 and 2013 in Somerset
County where crews from Senex and Joseph
Fay Contractors of Tarentum removed three
tunnels as part of the National Gateway. It was
not only a task to move more than 1.2 million
cubic yards of rock and earth while excavating
one tunnel alone, but another challenge to keep
some 40 trains a day running on a close-tonormal schedule around, under and through
the construction area.
Senex coordinated the work with a CSX
coordinator at the site, who stayed in touch
with train crews and train dispatchers in
Jacksonville, Florida, to “platoon” freight trains
and Amtrak’s daily Capital Limited through
both the tunnels and a run-around track that
was built to handle traffic while one tunnel, the
Pinkerton, was demolished.
The Pinkerton tunnel project also proved
to be one of the most interesting for Senex
crews. Built in 1885, the Pinkerton tunnel was
constructed of hand-cut stone and brick. It was
1,080 feet long and built along a curve next to
the Casselman River and the Great Allegheny
Passage, the 150-mile bike and hiking trail
between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, Md.
Part of the challenge to the project was not
only opening the tunnel, but to preserve the
integrity of the former Western Maryland
Railroad’s Pinkerton tunnel which was built
adjacent to the one being opened on CSX.
Although the tunnel along the Great Allegheny
Passage has been closed and trail users detour