Sinkhole Continues to Be A Problem in Pittsburgh

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Sinkhole still collapsing as merchants point fingers

PennDOT making effort to protect Route 65

Thursday, May 07, 2009

By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The state Department of Transportation is taking steps to protect Route 65 from being devoured by an East Rochester sinkhole that already has claimed a restaurant and is encroaching on a Pizza Hut and GetGo station.

Lane restrictions were posted this week on Route 65 so that experts from Gannett Fleming Engineers could assess the stability of the road and determine the best way to shore it up.

“We are surveying the roadway to make sure it’s not moving,” PennDOT District 11 spokesman Jim Struzzi said.

The sinkhole, which started two years ago as a small hole in the parking lot of the Evergreen Restaurant, is now 40 feet across and 60 feet deep.

It forced the demolition of the Evergreen Restaurant in 2007 and is now encroaching the Pizza Hut parking lot.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Environmental Protection is ramping up the pressure to get the sinkhole repaired, along with the failed drain system that caused it. Late last month, it filed a petition asking the court to enforce a repair order issued to seven property owners a year ago.

Beyond giving emergency workers access to their properties, none of the property owners have taken substantive steps toward repair, though Giant Eagle, Inc., is doing work to divert its storm water.

DEP spokesperson Helen Humphries singled out Evergreen owners Argyrios and Stella Apostolis, saying they “have not yet taken appropriate action.”

But the Apostolises, who saw their undermined restaurant demolished in Jan. 2008, have sued several other property owners as well as East Rochester, saying that an improper tap into a drain on their property and the fact it was carrying the borough’s storm water were key in the failure, and that they were not responsible for maintaining it.

According to that lawsuit, the SuperAmerica gas station — the precursor to the GetGo — was having drainage problems in 1996, and got East Rochester’s permission to tap into a vertical pipe beneath the Evergreen’s parking lot.

The suit says the borough pressured the Apostolises into agreeing, with the understanding that the gas station would keep insurance on the line and do maintenance.

The suit says the pipe was not designed for constant flow of water, which contributed to its failure. It also says the lines carried runoff from much of East Rochester, and that the SuperAmerica and GetGo stations did not get insurance or maintain the line.

“I’m still paying the loan on that hole,” Mr. Apostolis said. “I want my money back, my property back.”

His is not the only lawsuit.

The Pizza Hut restaurant parking lot is slowly being consumed, and its owner, Tri-L Pizza Huts Inc., recently sued the Apostolises, claiming that since the sinkhole started on their property it is their responsibility.

Beaver County Emergency Management Director Wes Hill said the pipe corroded, letting dirt fall down into a 12-foot culvert. The culvert, designed to carry runoff water along with three natural waterways down to the Ohio River, began to back up.

Eventually the whole system collapsed. With water flowing into the hole, the erosion has continued.

Meanwhile, the water that is supposed to go through the culvert underneath Route 65 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks is instead working its way through the earth beneath the highway, emerging on the downhill side and partially flooding the tracks.

Having even a small amount of water undercutting the roadway “is certainly a serious situation,” Mr. Struzzi said.

Mr. Struzzi previously said that the department would likely use gabian blankets — wire boxes filled with stone — to stop erosion beneath the roadway and stabilize its base, but said this week that the solution would depend on Gannett Fleming’s findings.