Pittsburgh’s PJ McArdle Roadway reopened Wednesday afternoon less than five hours after city officials closed it when rocks fell from a Mt. Washington hillside.
Workers from multiple Pittsburgh departments responded to the scene around 9:15 a.m. following a report of fallen rocks, said Molly Onufer, a spokeswoman for Mayor Corey O’Connor. There was no landslide, Onufer said.
The road reopened around 2 p.m.
A motorist drove over the rocks, triggering her car’s airbags to deploy, Onufer said. The driver was not injured.
A team from the city Department of Public Works was “clearing the rock debris from the road” around 11 a.m., Onufer said. City engineers and a contractor also are “on site to inspect and assess the hillside.”
The road could be closed again later this week for additional work, she said.
Landslides have closed PJ McArdle Roadway numerous times — at least once for a few months.
In January 2012, more than 100 tons of debris slid onto the roadway, which connects the city’s Mt. Washington neighborhood to the Liberty Bridge. It took until April to reopen the road — at a cost of $700,000.
Two years later, in May 2014, mud and rock from the hillside slid across the roadway. No one was hurt. The road was closed for three hours.
The city closed PJ McArdle Roadway for five days in 2024 to address concerns with landslides there.
In May last year, contractors completed three major projects to mitigate potential landslides at other slopes in Mt. Washington, including ones at Greenleaf, Reese and William streets. The work followed a 2018 landslide onto nearby Saw Mill Run Boulevard.
The projects were funded by a $13.3 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, officials said.
