Weather this week in Pittsburgh area creates a recipe for landslides
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The weather this week has created a recipe for landslides.
Mt. Washington has seen its fair share of landslides. The city is currently tackling three streets to make sure there are no problems. PennDOT shared a few locations around Allegheny County that it is keeping its eyes on.
PennDOT spoke with KDKA-TV in Coraopolis at Montour Street, which had part of the street washed away.
"All that moisture, all that snow thawing at once on top of rain is a difficult thing to do with," PennDOT District 11 Bridge Engineer Shane Szalankiewicz said.
While this slide happened in December, it shows what water can do. Once it gets deep in the ground, there is a layer that once it gets wet, it slides like wet clay. Anything above it will slide with it.
"We're going to want to drill at those locations to see how deep is that failure plane. That's going to help us figure out how are we going to repair this," Szalankiewicz said.
In the city, crews try to watch areas where there have been slides in the past. They spend about $1 million to $8 million a year on landslide cleanup and repairs. Preventative work includes making sure water runs off to the proper areas.
"Going to good locations and not being concentrated and dumped over a hillside that otherwise may be unstable," Pittsburgh Department of Mobility of Infrastructure Chief Engineer Eric Setzler said.
Something the city along with other road crews are interested in is monitors that can be placed into the ground to check on the ground conditions, letting crews know of any movement before it shows on the surface.
"That's an area we're interested in and are looking at opportunities to try some of those things out, but that's not really in our toolbox right now," Setzler said.
PennDOT spent more than $8 million last year on landslide remediation in Allegheny and Beaver counties. Its crews addressed 60 slides in 2023. Those varied from smaller slides that can be repaired in days to larger ones that need to go out for bids to contractors.
PennDOT makes a priority list to find what to address first. Factors include traffic flow, areas of concern and the need for detours.
A couple of areas PennDOT is watching in Allegheny County include Forsythe Road in Collier Township and Milltown Road and Hunter Road in Penn Hills.
For the Mt. Washington project, the city says it is addressing three streets this year: Greenleaf, William and Reese. The city hopes to have all the work done by the end of the year.