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Thursday, May 23, 2013 | 12:55 a.m.

Updated: 6:37 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008 | Posted: 6:13 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008

Rockslide Shut Down Major Roadway In Johnstown 1 Year Ago

A year ago Saturday, a rockslide along Menoher Boulevard left drivers using detours for nearly three months. On Friday, another mess made its way to another busy Johnstown road.

PennDOT crews spent about an hour Friday cleaning up rocks and dirt along Route 56. The slide shut down the bypass in the westbound lanes from Route 219 in Richland Tonwship into the city. Local businesses who experienced the closure of the Easy Grade said that's nothing compared to what they had to deal with one year ago.

"You get that feeling in your stomach again. Every time I come to work, I come up Menoher and I look where the rockslide was and I always find myself glancing up at the hillside waiting for something to come down on me and I just hold my breath," said Michael Skobensky from Symon's Auto Wash.

A series of rockslides forced crews to scale back part of the hillside and repair fencing to keep more rocks from falling. After nearly three months the Easy Grade reopened, but during that time, nearby businesses like Symon's Auto Wash struggled.

Skobensky said, "we had to be careful what we did. We probably were down 70 percent of business. We were cut off from the town. We just did what we had to to survive."

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