RAIN FALLOUT
Repair after landslides takes time, strains state and municipal budgets
Jason Molinero, deputy director of engineering for the Allegheny County Department of Public Works, lives by this adage:
“Water is the great enemy of transportation infrastructure.”
That has become even more prominent the past two years as record rainfall has left state, county and municipal officials scrambling for resources and manpower to deal with dozens of landslides that have closed and damaged roads and bridges throughout the region.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has 117 active slides on state roads in Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties. Allegheny has more than 60 on roads it maintains, and Pittsburgh has more than 100 on the books, two to three dozen of them priority projects.
“We’re seeing it all over,” Mr. Molinero said Friday. “[Slide damage] isn’t limited to one corridor or region. It’s really taking manpower from our workforce that should be doing other things.”
The same thing is true at PennDOT, where District
Executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni said every time there is heavy rain, maintenance crews that should be repairing potholes or doing other routine road and bridge work begin their day by reviewing potential slide areas and making sure storm sewers are clear. Her threecounty district increased its budget for landslide control from about $6 million last year to $20 million this year.
The county earmarked about $4.5 million for retaining walls, but that doesn’t include the cost for personnel and other landslide cleanup. In Pittsburgh, the budget of $6.8 million isn’t nearly enough, Chief Engineer Eric Setzler said, and he’s recommending doubling it for the next five years to catch up.
“It’s a huge strain on resources — financial and manpower,” Ms. Moon-Sirianni said, noting the department has pushed back design work on some future road and bridge projects to deal with the slides.
When landslides occur, it’s rarely a simple matter of cleaning up the debris and reopening the road, officials said. In many instances, utilities and the road surface have been damaged, the hillside remains unstable and engineers have to design repairs before work can begin to allow a road to be reopened.
“It can take six months to a year to get everything ready before you can go in and fix a slide,” Ms. Moon-Sirianni said. “In a lot of cases, we don’t own the property where the slide occurred so we have to get permission.”
In Ross, for example, PennDOT hasn’t been able to do any major work on Reis Run Road, which has been limited to local traffic between Rochester and Arndt roads since a slide May 31. That’s because the hillside hasn’t stopped moving.
On Nadine Road in Penn Hills, the county had to wait for utility repairs and is still designing the solution after a retaining wall fell July 12, damaging the road and leaving the hillside unstable. Mr. Molinero said that project is a high priority and the goal is to have the road at least partially open by the time school begins so school buses can use it.
The county delayed and moved a paving project on Mount Nebo Road in Ohio Township that was expected to begin July 24 for several weeks so it could concentrate on Nadine and because the project is close to already-closed Reis Run Road. That project will begin this month and work will be limited to overnight hours to reduce congestion.
Ms. Moon-Sirianni said her department has a spreadsheet listing every slide with the priority order in which it will be addressed. Factors the department considers include whether the properties are landlocked with no access — the highest priority — the amount of traffic on the road and whether it is the primary access to a hospital or a school bus route.
PennDOT began work last week on a slide on the Plum Street Bridge over Plum Creek in Oakmont and this week on Larimer Avenue in Wilkins and Old Leechburg Road in Plum. The county reopened Spring Run Road Extension in Moon and Coraopolis Monday after a slide closed it April 11.
The city has been working on plans for a particularly tricky landslide on Commercial Street in Squirrel Hill, where the hillside is shifting above the Parkway East. The city hopes to begin remediation work in the fall, Mr. Setzler said.
With so many slides, Ms. MoonSirianni said, PennDOT has had to be “creative” in designing repairs so it can stretch funds. For example, in some instances, it is using soil nails — a process that involves installing plates with steel rods — or deep soil mixing that adds grout to the soil, rather than installing more expensive retaining walls.
In the city, Mr. Setzler said the slides have been “a big strain” and the city likely will need state funding to meet its needs.
“It’s something affecting everyone,” he said. “If you’re not finding new money, you’re taking it from somewhere else where it’s needed.”
Landslides can be even more problematic for smaller communities, which may not have the resources to handle them. As a result, the county convened a task force last year and last week began operating a landslide portal to provide online information about techniques and resources for local communities.
“A local road may be the major way of getting in and out of the community, so that can be a real problem,” Mr. Molinero said.
Officials said they do what they can with drainage improvements and other steps to prevent future landslides, but there are limited resources.
“”Our budget for landslides really can’t go much more than we did this year,” Ms. Moon-Sirianni said. “We just try to chip away at them without letting our roads and bridges fall apart.
“We can’t put all of our budget into slide repairs.”