City Considers Plan to Reopen Spring Street

Long-closed road has been rebuilt; new opening at Coursin needed

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
November 13, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

Spring Street between Cornell and Jenny Lind streets was repaired as part of a sewer line replacement project. City officials would like to reopen the street. (Tube City Almanac photo)

City officials are working on a proposal to reopen Spring Street between Cornell and Jenny Lind streets — but there’s a hitch.

About a quarter-mile of the street was abandoned when Twin Rivers Elementary School was built in 2014 and the intersection at Cornell Street will need to be re-aligned.

City council last week authorized Mayor Michael Cherepko’s administration to pursue $400,000 in funding from the Commonwealth Financing Authority to complete the work.

Spring Street was closed for safety reasons in 2009 when the pavement began to fail and cave in. Before the closure, it was an important link between Walnut Street and the Seventh Ward neighborhood, including homes, schools, and Carnegie Library of McKeesport.

At the time, city officials said that an underground spring under the street — from where it got its name — was causing the damage, and engineers estimated that repairs would cost upwards of $1 million.

From the archives: Spring Street is a ‘shock-shattering shortcut’ (2009)

Tube City Almanac Video from 2009

But City Administrator Tom Maglicco said Pennsylvania American Water Co., which took over McKeesport’s sewerage system five years ago, recently reconstructed a sewer line on Spring Street and found no evidence of an underground spring.

The street has now been repaved and is ready for use — except for approximately 100 feet where Spring Street previously connected to Cornell Street. That area was repurposed as a driveway for Twin Rivers Elementary School.

“The neighbors up there have been adamant that they’d like to see that street be reopened,” Maglicco said.

The street would also be part of a proposed biking path that would link the Great Allegheny Passage to the Library neighborhood and Renziehausen Park via Versailles Avenue, city officials said.

But rerouting the intersection of Cornell and Spring streets is likely to require taking some portion of the campus of First United Methodist Church at the corner of Versailles Avenue.

The intersection of Spring and Cornell streets was closed when Twin Rivers Elementary School was built in 2014. (Tube City Almanac photo)

The Rev. Michele Nagle, pastor of the McKeesport Area Shared Ministry of the United Methodist Church, said her office staff has heard “rumors” that the city wanted to reopen the street, but no one from city hall has approached the church about the project.

The portion that would be impacted is used for green space and parking by the church.

“We would definitely need to have some conversations about that,” Nagle said, but declined further comment for now.

In other business last week, city council authorized Cherepko’s administration to apply for $250,000 in Allegheny County Economic Development funding for demolition of abandoned houses in the area of Union, Flagler and Beech streets.

The money would come from the state’s Blight Removal Program, commonly known as Act 152, which is funded by fees paid to the county Recorder of Deeds office.

Renovations to turn the former Centennial Elementary School into a senior-citizen apartment complex are nearing completion, Cherepko said, and the city would like to make sure vacant properties around the building are ready for redevelopment. 

The 42-unit complex is being developed by McKeesport-based Kucich Construction.

A portion of the closed section of Spring Street. (Tube City Almanac photo)

Originally published November 13, 2025.

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