Pittsburgh business owners, neighbors frustrated over flooding

BELLEVUE, Pa. — Business owners and neighbors are frustrated over a road in Pittsburgh that consistently floods when it rains.

Every time it rains on Union Avenue, neighbors are afraid their homes will flood or even worse — someone might get stuck in the water.

On Sunday, rescue crews were called to the area near the border of the city’s Bellevue neighborhood and Ross Township after a car became stuck in high water. At least one person had to be helped out of the vehicle and to safety.

A business owner in the area said PennDOT is blaming the issue on a drainage problem, but he thinks it’s a much bigger problem than that.

“The last 5 years, we’ve had more flooding on this street than I’ve ever seen it before,” embroidery company owner Mario Nazareth said.

He said the water gets into the business and each time, he is left cleaning it up.

“Instead of working and trying to get back from COVID because Ii was shutdown last year, I’m out here trying to clean up and do the stuff here instead of doing my business,” he said.

Nazareth says PennDOT is blaming him and the business next door for the problem.

“They are blaming me, that this is caused by an undersized pipe and I said just show me the numbers of the engineering study you guys have done, they don’t have anything for me,” he said.

He recently received a letter from PennDOT that states there is a serious drainage problem on his property that causes the road to flood.

“I don’t know how I can be blamed when I just cleaned everything out there was no debris here and I’m supposed to police everything for everything around me so debris doesn’t clog the pipes?”

In the letter, PennDOT also said there was a pipe alteration on the property that changed the existing watercourse in the area. Nazareth says he’s never altered the pipes.

“Just in the past few months we’ve probably sent a half a dozen of those letters out due to the flooding issues that have occurred due to the rain this past spring and summer,” PennDOT District Executive of Engineering for District 11 Cheryl Moon-Sirianni said. “I feel really badly for a lot of the property owners because a lot of times these issues weren’t disclosed a lot of times the properties are built over existing drainage ditches and pipes were put in and the pipes weren’t accordingly.”

Nazareth the flooding has to do with development in the area.

“As soon as you put a development or a parking lot in you have extra runoff that’s not accounted for back when that original pipe was put in,” he said.

The business owner is thankful to PennDOT for helping him clear out the water from time to time but, again, he thinks the problem is bigger than him. He plans to have an engineer come out and do a study, and he’s going to contact state representatives.

Flooding is a problem on Jacks Run Road too.

Charles Beam, owner of Beam’s Auto said he is always trying to prevent this area from flooding, even though he’s not responsible for it.

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