The city of Pittsburgh is considering the construction of a memorial playground to honor the victims of a 2011 flood that turned low-lying Washington Boulevard into a lake. That is a worthy idea, and the city is to be commended for exploring it. However, a better tribute would be the city’s commitment to ensuring that the floodgate system on Washington Boulevard is regularly tested and inspected to ensure proper operation in future storms.
Killed in the August 2011 flood were Kimberly Griffith, 45; her daughters, Brenna, 12, and Mikaela, 8, of Plum; and Mary Saflin, 72, of Oakmont. After that, the state Department of Transportation spent $450,000 to install flashing lights and railroad crossing-style gates to keep motorists off the road when sensors detected rising water levels. However, the system failed to activate during a storm five weeks ago, and emergency workers narrowly averted another tragedy by rescuing the occupants of submerged vehicles.
It turns out the system had not been inspected for three years because PennDOT and the city each thought the other was responsible for maintaining it. The neglect was a searing indictment of the governments, which seemed to have forgotten that the warning system even was there.
Initial reports after the Aug. 28 storm indicated maintenance problems ranging from dead batteries to control boxes discovered in the “off” position. A final report released by the city Friday confirmed some of the initial findings, expanded on others (some of the control boxes were deficient) and estimated that repairs would cost as much as $50,000 and take several weeks. Kevin Acklin, chief of staff to Mayor Bill Peduto, has pledged that the maintenance delays will not occur again.
The system should be tested monthly to make sure all of the components function properly. A playground near the flood site, an idea that emerged in discussions between the city and the Griffith family, would serve as a memorial to those lost and a reminder of the city’s need to make flood control a top priority.
First Published: October 6, 2016, 4:00 a.m.