The Pittsburgh sinkhole bus is back on the road

Pittsburgh’s infamous sinkhole bus that dropped partially into a Downtown street in October is back on the road.

Port Authority’s 6015 bus, which can pick up any route that begins at the Collier garage, was put back into service on Saturday, about six weeks after a sinkhole partially swallowed it.

“For everyone here it was sort of a surprise that – considering what transpired that day – it wasn’t damaged more,” said Port Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph. “But we were glad it wasn’t.”

The bus was stopped for a traffic light at the intersection of 10th and Penn Avenue shortly before 8 a.m. Oct. 27 when a sinkhole opened beneath it. The rear of the bus fell in, leaving it standing partially upright leaning against the edge of the hole.

Brandolph said the bus was repaired at Port Authority’s main shop in Manchester, where slight body and frame damage was repaired. Water that gushed from a water main break beneath the street flowed into the bus, so the inside was cleaned as well, he said. The bus’s front suspension was replaced as a precaution.

The 14-ton bus spent about 13 hours leaning at the awkward angle and, Brandolph said, had it remained there much longer, there likely would have been more damage to the body and frame.

“There was a lot of stress on the frame sitting in that position,” he said. “Even though it wasn’t going anywhere, the gravity at an angle it’s not supposed to be at could have potentially done a lot of damage to the bus.”

The driver and one passenger made it off the bus no worse for wear, but the sinkhole continues to add another level of pain to driving Downtown.

The hole – about 75 feet long and 15 feet deep – had to be filled in and stabilized before crews could begin repairs to the below-ground utilities.

Those repairs continue, according to Tim McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto’s office. Much of the work now is by PAC Thermal, which has steam tunnels below that area.

“Once their work is finished, the city is studying whether it can temporarily patch the hole until spring and then reopen it for larger-scale repairs,” McNulty said.

That remains a decision to be made later, he said, and the investigation into what caused the sinkhole continues