Public Works Crew Tears Up Freshly Painted Road

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh street crews committed a big blunder.

One crew comes through and paints double lines on a long stretch of Steuben Street in the West End and a few minutes later, another crew comes along and tears up the same street for repaving.

"It was about the most stupid thing I have ever witnessed in this city," Pittsburgh Fire Captain Dave Cermina said.

He watched it all happen.

"The city paint truck came by this morning here on Steuben, painted double yellow solid lines all the way up Steuben," he said.

"About 30 minutes later, the milling machine came up and just tore up Steuben Street – all the asphalt – and the lines are now gone.

"Why was it painted immediately before it was ripped up. It made no sense," he continued.

Turns out he's right. A city crew painted the yellow lines about 8 a.m. and laid down 15 to 20 gallons of paint.

Another crew ripped up the same street along with the new lines about an hour later.

"It's an error. It was a breakdown in communication," Pittsburgh Public Works Director Rob Kaczorowski said. "Looked into it. The foreman feels bad about it. He thought he specifically told the crew to skip Steuben Street and [the] crew went out – hard working zealous guys – they went out and started the route."

The bad news is the same crew will have to re-paint the same lines once the street is repaved. However, the new street paving program is saving big bucks.

"It saves the city taxpayers close to $230,000 to $240,000," Kaczorowski said.

RELATED LINKS
More Local News
More Reports By Marty Griffin