PennDOT: Slide Cleared On Parkway East, All Lanes Reopened
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- PennDOT officials say the mud, rocks and debris from a landslide has been cleared from the roadway and all lanes of the Parkway East have now been reopened to traffic.
The slide happened around 9:30 a.m. near the entrance to the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and dropped a tree onto the Parkway.
It closed one inbound lane of the highway for most of the day, causing traffic troubles for drivers. However, PennDOT's Jim Struzzi says all lanes on the inbound Parkway East are now reopen.
PennDOT warned drivers to expect significant delays until crews had the chance to clean up the mess and assess the stability of the hillside.
A tree removal crew had to take down four large trees before PennDOT could even inspect the hillside.
"We'll look if anything needs to occur in the future," said Struzzi. "We are going to have the geotechnical engineers come out and just take a look at it; although, it does appear to be minor at this point, we don't want to take any chances."
An estimated 65,000 vehicles use that stretch of the Parkway every day.
Next week, officials plan to reassess the hillside, and determine whether more needs to come down, and then they'll decide whether permanent barriers are needed.
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