Emergency landslide repairs erode capital budget
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Landslides like the one that closed McArdle Roadway are a perennial problem for a city knit together by hills and river valleys, forcing the city to shell out millions of dollars for repairs and property damage.
The slide on McArdle, the main route to Pittsburgh's Mount Washington neighborhood, could cost as much as $300,000 to fix. That project wasn't included in the public works department's 2012 capital plan, which proposed five other landslide or retaining wall projects with a combined estimated cost of $4.1 million.
"Banksville Avenue has been restricted to one lane, one direction, for several years," the department said in a proposed project list. "Further sliding could rupture a gas line and a combination sewer line."
The other proposed projects are Portman Avenue on the North Side; Mooney Road on the Lincoln Place-New Homestead border; Wyoming Street on Mount Washington; and an access road at the city salt dome on Route 51.
The public works department recently completed one project on its list -- a $120,000 repair of a slide in New Homestead that had restricted steep Doerville Avenue to one lane.
About $400,000 previously was set aside for repair of a slide on Oakland Square. However, repairs might cost as much as $1 million, and the city so far hasn't allocated the additional funds, said Nathan Hart, president of Oakland Planning and Development Corp. and vice president of Oakland Community Council.
"We've been patient, but we are hoping the city will take care of it," he said.
At risk are two houses, one a restored Victorian. The slide occurred five or six years ago, Mr. Hart said, when "one of the hurricanes came from up the Gulf, swept through Pittsburgh and really saturated the ground in that area."
Jersey barriers have been placed along the street to make sure cars don't fall over the hillside. Every so often, Mr. Hart said, workers reposition the barriers to keep them from going over the hillside.
Officials said various other neighborhoods also have experienced slides.
"They monitor them, I know, and fix them when they can," Chris Beichner, executive director of Mount Washington Community Development Corp., said.
An $80 million bond issue proposed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl could help the city catch up with some landslide and retaining wall projects. Because of limited resources, public works director Rob Kaczorowski said, he spends more time responding to emergencies than doing preventive maintenance.
Those emergencies can be costly in more ways than one.
In 2003, landslides on Corfu Street in Elliott imperiled three houses, requiring the city to take the properties. So far, the city has paid about $880,000 to the property owners and their lawyers. It also has paid about $58,000 for outside legal help and technical assistance, and legislation to pay another $45,000 in a plaintiff's legal fees is pending before city council.
In 2004, Norfolk Southern Railway Co. sued the city, alleging that slides on Corfu Street had caused a "multi-car derailment" on one occasion and extended train stoppages at various times. At one point, the railroad said, it had to station flagmen at the scene around the clock to ensure the safety of passing trains.
To settle that suit, the city paid $425,000, according to legislative records.
In 2007, the city paid $20,000 to a North Side couple whose property was damaged by a slide. In 2001, it paid $40,000 to another North Side couple who made similar claims.
Corfu Street property owners claimed that the city created landslide conditions by removing trees from the hillside. While Mr. Kaczorowski called water runoff the main factor in the McArdle Roadway slide, questions also have arisen about trees, or a lack of trees, there.
Mr. Kaczorowski said stumps were found at the site, although he didn't recall the public works department ever authorizing tree removal there. Mr. Beichner's group said it believed that the city or one of its contractors removed trees from the site, but couldn't say when that work occurred.
Sometimes, community groups pitch in. North Side Leadership Conference, for example, has taken a role in proposing solutions for slides near the Penn Brewery on Troy Hill and on Scherling Street in Summer Hill.
"You know, it's a city built on hillsides," Mark Fatla, conference executive director, said. "It's going to happen. A lot of our infrastructure was built 150-plus years ago for these hillsides. It's not surprising that issues are going to come up."
The city also has a "Greenways for Pittsburgh" program that preserves open space, partly for landslide prevention. It includes about 5 acres in South Oakland, about 40 acres in the Morningside and Stanton Heights neighborhoods, about 19 acres in Observatory Hill and about 13 acres in Perry South.
First Published January 23, 2012 12:00 am
