Flood control, shuttle service move forward in Greenfield
After getting an earful from residents of the Junction Hollow area of Greenfield about 2½ years ago, Pittsburgh officials are ready to move ahead with the largest stormwater mitigation project in the city’s history to address chronic flooding in the area known as “The Run.”
Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is refining a proposal for a $41 million program that would involve a mostly green solution to the flooding problems, expand Panther Hollow Lake to hold more water, and establish an open trench system to take water from Schenley Park to the Monongahela River without pouring it into homes mostly on Saline and Boundary streets.
The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy oversaw initial development of the plan and has turned it over to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority for final design and construction set to begin in 2020.
At the same time, the city is finalizing plans to establish a low-speed, on-call shuttle system between Hazelwood and Oakland that would pass through Junction Hollow on a new, separate path. The system — which still has objections from Junction Hollow residents — would serve residents at both ends as well as thousands of projected employees at the Hazelwood Green development site and faculty and students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.
Residents in Junction Hollow also would have special access to the service.
The stormwater plan, proposed by nationally recognized green firms Phronesis and Burns & McDonnell, also would include new trails, picnic areas and other recreational activities, said Megan Zeigler, associate project manager for PWSA.
When a transportation system was proposed in late 2015, it created a firestorm