Nearly a year after it swallowed a bus, Pittsburgh's 10th Street is open

Downtown Pittsburgh’s 10th Street reopened Thursday nearly a year after a portion of it gave way and swallowed part of a Port Authority bus.

The stark image of a bright blue bus sticking out of the street near the Westin Hotel drew onlookers to the area. “Sinkhole Bus” became a meme, a Christmas ornament and a costume.

The bus was at a traffic light at the intersection of 10^th and Penn Avenue around 8 a.m. Oct. 28 when a 60-foot piece of roadway fell in, taking the back end of the bus with it. Two passengers and the driver were able to get off the bus and were uninjured.

Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review

Crews work at the scene of a Port Authority bus that had fallen into a sinkhole along 10th Street and Penn Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh on Monday, Oct. 28, 2019. The bus and a car fell in the sinkhole shortly before 8 a.m. One person was taken to the hospital for a minor injury.

A crane was eventually brought in to lift the 14-ton bus out of the sinkhole.

The bus was back on the road within two months. The street would take much longer.

What officials thought would take weeks to repair turned into a yearlong project after utility companies discovered damage to infrastructure beneath the street, according to Tim McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto’s office. The covid-19 pandemic further delayed work when the virus took hold in March.

Nearly all local utility companies had to have a hand in the repairs: Duquesne Light, Peoples Gas, Comcast, Verizon, PWSA and Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Thermal.

Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review

A person crosses the reopened Tenth Street at Penn Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. The portion of Tenth Street outside the Westin Pittsburgh hotel was closed for nearly a year after a sinkhole there swallowed a Port Authority bus on Oct. 28, 2019.

The months of repairs are on par with the rest of this year, Peduto said.

“This has been an incredibly challenging year for our city, nation and planet, and the 10th Street sinkhole represented everything 2020 has been about: Danger, disruption and frustration but ultimately solutions due to a lot of hard work by people working together,” he said.

Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review

Bicyclists move along the reopened Tenth Street in Downtown Pittsburgh on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. The portion of Tenth Street outside the Westin Pittsburgh hotel was closed for nearly a year after a sinkhole there swallowed a Port Authority bus on Oct. 28, 2019.

Officials said PWSA and PACT had to do some of the most complicated work in order to get the street back open.

The collapse sent water and soil into steam tunnels, which PACT crews then cleaned, sanitized and repaired. PWSA crews cleared 2,500 tons of debris from a 48-inch sewer line and removed debris from the sinkhole – something that had to be done before other utilities could make their respective repairs.

By the end of the project, city officials said, crews had added 746 tons of backfill to the hole, replaced nearly 2,100 square feet of bricks and poured nearly 400 tons of concrete over the course of 1,100 hours.

This morning, @PGHDPW crews reopened Tenth Street in @DowntownPitt.

After a year of work repairing severe underground damage by four private utilities & @pgh2o, @PghDOMI recently restored the street. DETAILS: https://t.co/nP2BxIuUNu pic.twitter.com/clJ0LwE2A1

— City of Pittsburgh (@Pittsburgh) October 8, 2020