PennDOT wants more information before agreeing to replace floodgates

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh may be convinced that the balky, often out-of-service floodgates on Washington Boulevard need to be replaced, but the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation isn’t ready yet to take that step.

Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, PennDOT’s district executive for Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties, said Friday she wants experts to examine the troublesome gates on the boulevard near Highland Park to determine why they aren’t working properly. After four people died in 2011 in rain runoff that pools in the area, PennDOT installed the gates for $450,000 and turned them over to the city for maintenance, similar to how traffic signals are handled.

The system is supposed to lower the gates to prevent motorists from entering the roadway when water is rising, but they have had repeated problems. In August 2016, several motorists stranded inside their cars had to be rescued when the gates failed to block access, and on Tuesday one gate failed to move into place during a storm.

The city says the system hasn’t worked consistently since one of its poles was struck during a traffic accident in March and that runoff of mud and water from the Lincoln-Lemington hillside above Washington Boulevard causes the gate’s sensors to malfunction. Police are assigned to manually put up barriers during heavy rain to keep motorists off the road.

Guy Costa, the city’s director of operations, said city officials plan to meet internally next week to begin planning how to replace the floodgates with a more effective system. The only ways to protect motorists are to keep them out when it floods or raise the roadway several feet so it doesn’t flood, but raising the roadway is too expensive, he said.

“We’re going to put together a plan to replace the gates,” Mr. Costa said. “They need to be replaced. We’re very convinced.”

Ms. Moon-Sirianni said she needs more information before she can reach that conclusion.

“Our next step is to find out why they aren’t working,” she said. “We need to do some investigating.”

Mr. Costa estimated it would cost up to $1 million to replace the gates “and we hope the state will work with us on this.”