(The following story by Jan Ackerman appeared on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website on March 14.)
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — On the busy rail line that runs near Corfu Street in the city’s Elliott neighborhood, Norfolk Southern Railroad’s flagmen keep a watch high above them for landslides as they direct trains through the city.
Each day, between 80 and 100 trains travel the route, some carrying hazardous materials. The railroad says that multiple landslides, caused by the city’s development of the West End Overlook, have made the section so dangerous that they’ve had to keep round-the-clock flagmen at the site and shut down the inside track, near Corfu Street.
“It is our main artery between New Jersey and Chicago,” said Rudy Husband, railroad spokesman.
The landslides began May 7, and more than six have occurred since then, the railroad said in a lawsuit filed against the city in November in U.S. District Court. In addition, the shifting landscape has forced several homeowners to move from Corfu Street and one house has been torn down.
The city contends in the lawsuit that the West End overlook project did not cause the problem; nor did the city.
“We live in a terrain that, after unprecedented rainfall, is giving away,” said City Solicitor Jacqueline Morrow.
She said the railroad could repair the problem by shoring up the hillside.
“Everything is solvable if you have unlimited funds,” she said. “The railroad is no different than a homeowner who is watching their backyard come down,” Morrow said.
In 2003, the city opened the West End-Elliott Overlook Park on the hillside above Corfu Street. The park has a meandering walkway, stone benches, an air-conditioned building with restrooms and an observation deck that offers an incomparable view of the city of Pittsburgh.
The railroad suit says the construction of the overlook and removal of trees and vegetation to improve the views led to the destabilization of the hillside.
On Feb. 24, a railroad worker who was moving three giant rocks with a backhoe was injured when a rock crashed through the windshield.
“We have been trying to address this problem since last spring,” said Husband. “We thought this was a serious public safety issue.”
In November, the railroad filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the city, claiming that the city’s development of the West End overlook has made the hillside unstable. The lawsuit said that on May 7, heavy rains fell, causing part of the hillside to break away, resulting in a landslide and a derailment of nine cargo cars.
According to the suit, the railroad had to lay 1,500 feet of new rail. Subsequent slides have caused closures and when Hurricane Ivan drenched the region Sept. 17, larger portions of Angle and Corfu streets began cracking and breaking away.
The railroad sued the city for public and private nuisance and negligence. Recently, the railroad went in and removed some boulders that were threatening to dislodge and crash onto the tracks.
“Everyone is lucky that the landslides to date … have not resulted in a loss of lives or serious injuries,” the railroad’s attorneys wrote in a Jan. 14 brief.
W. Gregory Rhodes, an attorney for Norfolk Southern, said the railroad has refiled a motion asking for a court injunction that would force the city to fix the entire problem.
“We are waiting for a hearing,” Rhodes said.