After Record Rainfall & Multiple Landslides In 2018, Pittsburgh Nearly Triples Cleanup Budget

[hatrack]

By last April, according to a report from WESA, the city of Pittsburgh had already spent five times more money on cleaning up landslides than it had budgeted for the entire year.​ In one week in February, more than a dozen landslides struck the city, forcing people to evacuate and destroying at least one home. In April, a massive landslide in the adjacent city of East Pittsburgh knocked out a portion of highly trafficked Route 30, keeping the road closed for months.

It was a record year for slope erosion in the area, and the primary culprit was water. Last year, Pittsburgh, which is already among the rainiest cities in the United States, saw nearly 58 inches of rain, as opposed to the typical 38 inches, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And at a very basic level, excess water makes Pittsburgh’s already steep topography less stable.

“We already have geological conditions that put us at risk,” says Karina Ricks, director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, which manages civil engineering work for the city’s public rights of way, street networks, trails, and certain waterways. The strata under the city include a layer of clay soil that Ricks describes as “very lovely and very slippery,” which means that dirt on the city’s many hillsides is already prone to slipping. Additional moisture makes that soil looser. As Ricks says, “When you add water, we end up with this [landslide] activity.”

This year, which is already getting off to a warm and wet start, the city is taking steps to improve its preparation. The budget line item for slope remediation last year was $2.5 million, according to Ricks. This year, it’s been raised to $6.8 million. “Will that take care of everything? No,” she says. “Even with that large number, that still leaves unaddressed probably a half-dozen significant slides where we have had roads closed, and the roads will remain closed.”

EDIT

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/not-the-kind-of-ground-breaking-pittsburgh-is-looking-for

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Pittsburgh has more bridges than any other US city, because of the wrinkled topography ...

traffic flow is crucially dependent on the bridges, and if even one of the smaller bridges carrying mostly local traffic is closed it can be very disruptive. Didn't realize it was that rainy, and I lived there for several years.