CINCINNATI — Columbia Parkway reopened Tuesday morning, days after a landslide closed the road Sunday.
The parkway is closed in both directions between Kemper Lane and Torrence for a mudslide that has blocked some of the lanes.
Crews have been at it for hours working to clean up landside in Columbia Parkway in Cincinnati. City says no time table for road to reopen. @WCPO pic.twitter.com/UFwJxUW3Qt
— Josh Bazan (@JoshBazan) January 28, 2019
A detour had been set up to reroute drivers through Kemper and Torrence while crews worked to clean the landslide.
WATCH: Sky 9 video of landslide cleanup on Columbia Parkway
Cincinnati is a "landslide-prone area of the country" and Columbia Parkway in particular is a "poster child" for the issue because the retaining wall wasn't engineered properly when it was built, according to Eric Russo, the executive director of The Hillside Trust, a local advocacy group.
"This is a very common occurrence along the parkway," he said. "This parkway was built at the mid-slope of a hillside back in the late '20s, early 1930s ... Over time, the problem has been that, that wall is not tall enough to hold the hill back, number one; and number two, the hillside was cut back at such an angle that it's still trying to find its balance in terms of equilibrium at that degree of slope."
Russo said he's noticed more landslides in the past three years caused by major storms. Public infrastructure like the parkway is being affected, and so is private property.
"This is an ongoing problem," he said. "This problem could go on for many, many years down the road."
