Shale Oil, Gas Finds Put Mon Valley On Path To Renaissance, Leaders Say

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Washington County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lue Ann Pawlick never envisioned companies connected with oil and gas beating a path to Alta Vista Business Park when it broke ground in tiny Fallowfield, Washington County, in 2001.

Today, three of the five companies in Alta Vista work in the industry. An energy company is set to start construction in the spring, and at least one more is close to signing a deal to locate there.

“We’re trying to keep it a mixed-use business park, but we have to recognize the oil and gas industry is the biggest game in town right now,” said Pawlick, executive director of the Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association. “They are the ones driving demand.”

Ten years ago, Fort Worth-based Range Resources Corp. drilled the first Marcellus shale well in Washington County. Now the county — which dubs itself “Energy Capital of the East” — is home to about 1,000 wells, the most in Pennsylvania.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/washington/6815491-74/county-mon-valley#ixzz3GhruaosZ
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Steel For I-81 Rebuild Sourced From Pennsylvania Steel Mills

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Dauphin County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In about a month, the massive bridge beams being manufactured for the emergency Interstate 81 rebuild project will be coming from beam fabricator High Steel Structures in Lancaster.

The company’s manufacturing facility — one of three in that city and four in the state — stands in sharp contrast to the fallen production factories that dot parts of the rust belt as it loops through Pennsylvania.

The steel industry was once a giant in Pennsylvania, and not just in Pittsburgh, Johnstown or Bethlehem, cities whose names are synonymous with steel.

While many of the heavy industrial mills closed — and indeed, Bethlehem Steel ceased to exist in 2003 — steel manufacturing is still a part of the state’s industrial landscape.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/all_in_family_steel_for_i-81_r.html#incart_river_default