Storms Cause Wall To Collapse At Mt. Washington Ball Field

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Storms caused a wall to collapse in Mount Washington Sunday morning, which closed part of a park.

Today, crews are removing some of the debris at the Olympia Park ball field. However, the Public Works Department wants to be extremely cautious not to disturb the hillside until an engineer can come in and evaluate.

Thankfully, no one was playing at the time of the collapse.

"Oh, it would have been disastrous. The way the wall came down is right where the home team sits. So, the home team would have been in very serious danger. And it took half of the bleacher, which would have had any fans that sit right there," David Caparelli, of the Washington Heights Athletic Association, said.

Preliminarily, the rain is to blame, which caused the hillside to weaken.

Caparelli said this field is home to three full teams and other adult leagues play there as well.

The outlook, as far as he's concerned, does not look good for this summer.

"We don't think we're probably going to play this year," he said. "They're looking for other fields for us to play for all three of our teams. So, it's a scheduling nightmare."

The Public Works Department said one of the biggest concerns is that the hillside was supporting the street, which is why engineers arrived Monday to begin a full inspection of the slide and collapse.

Repairs expected to be costly, as a downed light pole alone will cost upwards of $20,000.

"Olympia Park field will be closed until we figure out A. what happened and two how we're going to repair it," Pittsburgh Chief Operations Manager Guy Costa said.

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