Landslides Cause Riverview Park Pedestrian Lanes To Crumble, Frustrating Runners & Bikers

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NORTH SIDE (KDKA) -- Runners and bikers are frustrated and concerned about the damage caused by landslides in Riverview Park on the North Side.

Riverview Avenue is carefully lined off with walkers, bikers and joggers to the sides and cars down the middle.

It works until you get to one of the growing number of landslides that have taken out the pedestrian paths.

"Well, you have to walk in the way where the cars go. You have to go around it," one woman said.

Folks who enjoy the park say the landslides are nothing new.

"It's never been a real big issue for more than a day," another woman said.

But the recent landslides are a bit more serious.

"In the last several months, we've had three slides. We've had others before that, like I said, have no real effect on the park, but the ones that have been more recent have had effects on how people travel," Pittsburgh Public Works director Mike Gable said.

It's not just a quick clean-up.

"We'd love to move the material off, but fooling around with it may help to promote more of a slide," Gable said.

The city has called in the geotechnical experts.

"And we're going to wait for those reports to come back and that will help us decide on how we need to proceed with correcting those landslides," Gable said.

Meanwhile, the park's activities building is "out of commission."

"We have a broken sewer line, we've got a landslide and there's other things to correct," Gable said.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority will begin work on the sewer line next week, and the city will repair the rest when that work is done in hopes of having the activities center back in operation by early May, when numerous rentals are already on the books.