Residents of Pittsburgh’s southern and hilltop neighborhoods — where steep streets quickly become dangerous during snowstorms — may finally see construction on a new public works facility this year. According to the city's Department of Public Works, officials are in the final stages of awarding a contract for construction, which could begin this spring.
“Right now we’re projecting that we’re going to break ground on that project in April or May,” said Public Works director Chris Hornstein. The city hopes to have the work completed by the spring of 2025, in time for the winter of 2025. “I know everybody’s been chomping at the bit to get going — nobody more than myself.”
The project is a long time coming for the public works' Fourth Division — which includes Brookline, Overbrook and Carrick along with "hilltop" neighborhoods nearby. The area has lacked a facility to store salt and equipment since 2017, when officials closed the previous facility along Bausman Street. An engineering report found the building was unsafe for workers and machinery.
The structure was demolished in 2018, and street-plowing duties were were split between the nearby Third and Fifth public works divisions.
The city then opened a building dedicated to the Fourth district in the Strip District in 2019, but residents have complained of slower snow clearance times.
Trucks come into the neighborhood from the West End and the Strip District, which means about 20 minutes of extra travel time. That's especially hard for the Fourth Division, which Hornstein said has "the most number of streets and definitely without question the most challenging streets."
“They don't have emergency lights like ambulances and police cars to put on to plow roads,” said City Councilor Anthony Coghill, whose district includes the area.
Coghill has long championed a new public works facility for the area, frequently raising the matter during meetings with other city officials. Talk of having one completed by the fall is “music to my ears,” Coghill said.
“It was my very first project that I initiated,” he said. “I remember [being told] it would take four to five years and I was like, ‘Are you crazy?’”
But that estimate proved to be an understatement, with a new building set to open seven years after the closure of the old one if the city's timetable holds.
The original plan was to break ground for a facility on the site in 2021. But after pandemic construction delays and the discovery of mine shaft on the property, the city had to go back to the drawing board.
“We had to adjust our approach in the design to accommodate that,” Hornstein explained, and that the new design ensures "everything is safe.
“Obviously we don’t want to build a building on top of a mine shaft," he said.
“I've been frustrated over the years that it's taken so long,” Coghill said. “But I just couldn't be more pleased that we finally got to this point.”
