Pittsburgh Tracking Over 100 Active Landslides
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Landslides are an act of nature that cost a lot of money to repair. Unfortunately, more and more keep popping up across the City of Pittsburgh.
KDKA Investigator Meghan Schiller wanted to find out how many landslides are on the city's list for monitoring and if the list is growing faster than in years past.
Only on KDKA: we took concerned residents' questions straight to Eric Setzler, the City of Pittsburgh's lead engineer.
KDKA first reported on the El Paso Street slide in Morningside on Feb. 16, but its appearance has deteriorated in the past month and a half. Setzler tells KDKA it's up next for repairs.
We interviewed concerned neighbors along El Paso Street in Morningside who tell KDKA that the mailman and delivery trucks are struggling to maneuver the narrowing roadway.
"It stopped at the bottom of my deck and the deck tipped over," said neighbor Collen Crnkovich.
We highlighted the disappearing Bon Air backyards along Drycove Street and talked to neighbors who fear the city will condemn their homes as their legal bills pile up.
"I have no place to go during the wintertime, during the pandemic," said neighbor Mary Kaye-Kienke.
State Rep. Emily Kinkead is pushing for funding to help homeowners like Kaye-Kienke stuck with high bills to repair landslides on their properties. She previously proposed House Bill 1054, hoping to create a way to help these homeowners since no home insurance will cover the cost.
"We don't have anything, like nothing exists to help people recover," said Kinkead.
Jersey barriers recently popped up on Andover Terrace in North Oakland. Neighbors say the street is shifting and pulling away from the sidewalk.
"I hope they're gonna fix it after all," said neighbor Della Pennywell.
It's a safety issue with no quick fix.
"Whoever owns the land that slides is responsible for fixing the landslide," said Setzler.
He admits it's not something in the budget for most homeowners.
"I mean it's hard enough for the city to have enough resources to fix these landslides, how can you expect the typical homeowner?" he said.
But if the slide involves city property, like a street, stairs or "right of way," it's his department's responsibility. He's tracking more than 100 slides right now.
"Probably in the range of 120 landslides that we're aware of and not all of those necessarily require any action," said Setzler. "We have 75 that we're monitoring or keeping an eye on."
It's expensive to do the research, complete a design and initiate the fix. Setzler tells KDKA the city's spending about $5 million each year to fix the slides.
"And honestly that's probably not enough," he said.
But he said it's a balancing act. The city's also paying to fix sidewalks, stairs and bridges.
Setzler tells KDKA that the residents of El Paso Street will see work begin shortly.
"It's very close to the end of the design process and we'll be putting it up to bid for construction, but that was a pretty big landslide, and it took a while to get through the design process," he said.
