Title Twists to the City's Sinkhole

On October 28, 2019 a sinkhole opened on the intersection of 10th Street and Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh during rush hour traffic. The hole was large enough to swallow the back half of a port authority bus. Although Pittsburgh drivers are familiar with unsavory road conditions, like avoiding potholes and construction, they are not well acquainted with navigating sinkholes. On one hand, it seems like the road just needs to be filled and repaved – an “easy fix.” But who has ownership interests in the road and how the property is being used (beyond just as a road) affect how the city can move forward with repairs and how long repairs will take. 

In Pennsylvania, public roads which have been appropriated for the purposes of a common highway are treated only as easements. If the road traverses an owner’s land, fee ownership of the road itself actually remains with the landowner. Sterling’s Appeal, 111 Pa. 35 (Pa. 1886); Lewis v. Jones, 1 Pa. 336 (Pa. 1845). Where a deed uses a public road or highway as a boundary in the legal description of the property, the landowner is presumed to own the same to the middle of the street. Spackman v. Steidel, 88 Pa. 453 (Pa. 1879). Of course, it is also possible that a particular road is conveyed in fee to the state or a municipality. In that case, the political entity owns the road property in fee.

Regardless of how the public road is owned, a state or municipal entity is likely to be on the hook for maintenance of the same. Like many cities, the roads in downtown Pittsburgh are operated by the city.  Three main government agencies are responsible for keeping up the roads in and around downtown Pittsburgh, Penn Dot, The Allegheny County Department of Public Works, and the City of Pittsburgh Public Works. Roads surrounding downtown like, Boulevard of the Allies and the 10th Street Bypass, are within the jurisdiciton of the state and are maintained by Penn Dot. Some bridges, such as the Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Street bridges, are maintained by the Allegheny County Public Works. All other roadways in downtown, including the intersection that the sinkhole occupies, fall within the jurisdiction of the City of Pittsburgh.

The City of Pittsburgh Street Maintenance Bureau is responsible for the city's streets, managing their resurfacing, snow and ice removal, street sweeping, disaster response, and land records. Whenever a disaster occurs, the city is the first entity that is responsible for responding. Though the city is familiar with disaster maintenance like flooding, and severe snow and ice removal, the repair of a massive sinkhole poses some less obvious obstacles.

Several utility lines were damaged in the process of the road collapsing. Various utility companies like Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, Duquesne Light, Verizon, Peoples Gas, and Pittsburgh Allegheny County Thermal LTD, which supplies steam heat to Downtown buildings, all have a property interest in the road. They all likely have easements and rights-of-way in order to run utility lines though the intersection. When the sinkhole opened, the collapse of the road damaged those lines, and repairs must be completed prior to any superficial work begins. With these added repairs, the fix may take several additional months.

In the interim, people are desperately trying to determine the cause of the Oct. 28th sinkhole. Considering the city has 250 years of development under it, there is no telling what lies below our streets, but for the sake of the City’s Budget, let’s hope there are no more sinkholes.