Murphy Questions Moving Coast Guard Headquarters

The region’s U.S. Coast Guard’s command and maintenance center could be coming to the Bridgeville area, but one federal lawmaker is questioning if that’s the best place for it to be located.

Congressman Tim Murphy said the Coast Guard is expected to accept a bid this week to consolidate its three area centers into a building in or around the Chartiers Valley Shopping Center in Collier Township.

“I question the wisdom of putting the Coast Guard headquarters so far from the water,” Murphy said in an exclusive interview to Patch.com. “They wanted to be in the Pittsburgh pool. It’s not near there.”

Murphy, a Republican from Upper St. Clair, didn’t blame the Coast Guard, but said it’s the federal government’s General Services Administration that should be faulted. He said it received only one bid last fall and never worked to expand the search process for more possible sites.

Murphy added that the Bridgeville and Collier area is not the problem, but the proximity to Pittsburgh’s three major rivers. He pointed to how a “couple inches on a map can take an hour to travel” with traffic on the Parkway West.

“It will be a wonderful asset to the community,” Murphy said. “The people with the Coast Guard are wonderful people. This has nothing to do with them.”

Murphy said the contract is “on the verge” of being completed this week. His requests to the GSA to put out another bid and delay the decision until later this year has been stifled over concerns about fairness to the current bidder. But Murphy said he wants more options to put the Coast Guard closer to the three rivers.

“We love Bridgeville, we love the Coast Guard, but one bid?” Murphy said. “Is this the best thing for the Coast Guard?”