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KDKA Investigations

After landslide, Sewickley Hills man says PennDOT still hasn't fixed his driveway despite several attempts

By Meghan Schiller

/ CBS Pittsburgh

A Sewickley Hills man said he's left without a usable driveway because PennDOT cannot get it right. 

Don King said his driveway cracks and slips further down the hillside every time it rains. The only way he can reach his home is by using a narrow, muddy access road on his neighbor's property. 

King said the street in front of his home, Fern Hollow Road, washed away in a landslide, forcing PennDOT to come out and fix it. He said PennDOT last tried to fix his driveway in January.

Crews removed his driveway to gain access to fix the sliding hillside and road. King said after three separate attempts to replace it, it's still not right. 

"I've been patient for two years as this has all been going on, didn't raise my concerns, didn't cause any problems," King said. "At this point, I felt I needed to push as many buttons as I could to get this resolved."

King calls the failed driveway project a headache, a huge waste of taxpayer money and a safety issue. 

"We have no entrance to get emergency vehicles of any kind," King said. 

King believes PennDOT needs to use what are called pins, reinforced with concrete, to hold up his driveway, just like what they did for Fern Hollow Road.

"What they did after that is take all the rock that they had dug out, which was hundreds of tons, and made my driveway on top of a slide without any type of retention," King said.

KDKA reached out to PennDOT, which said in part that its "staff have been in communication with the property owner and are thoroughly investigating the situation."

Since this all started with a landslide, King's local state representative, Valerie Gaydos, said this is exactly why she's pushing for a state fund for landslide insurance. 

"Both municipalities and individuals can buy into this if they're in landslide-prone areas, and it works just like an insurance fund. Right now, you cannot get landslide insurance from your regular insurance companies," she said.

If that landslide fund gets approved, it is not retroactive, so King could not tap into any of those funds. But King insists that this is an engineering mishap. 

"At this point, I feel it's past my responsibility," he said. 

King lets the nearby Fern Hollow Nature Center use his property and lake, letting little kids learn to fish during summer programs and field trips. With an upcoming event scheduled, King is worried about access and safety.

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