On August 31, 2026, at 12:00 PM, the Pittsburgh City Council held a Post Agenda discussion on utility coordination, requested by Council Member Barbara Warwick. The meeting brought together representatives from the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI), Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA), Columbia Gas, and People's Gas to discuss challenges and opportunities in coordinating utility work, paving, and restoration across the city.
Paving Coordination and Advanced Planning – Councilwoman Warwick asked about providing council members with an early list of roads slated for paving. DOMI responded that it has historically been provided at the beginning of the year, but they are working to get it to council by the end of the current year, allowing members to suggest roads. The goal is to develop a three- to five-year paving plan, though budget constraints make this difficult.
Inter-Utility Coordination – Councilman Wilson inquired how multiple utilities (e.g., gas and water) coordinate work on the same street. Representatives explained that there is a data-sharing and financial cooperative agreement among utilities, and they have direct contacts for project-by-project coordination. However, site-specific constraints (e.g., water mains in the roadway vs. gas mains in sidewalks) can limit coordination opportunities. DOMI noted that its traffic review team (only two reviewers and a supervisor) is stretched thin reviewing over 10,000 permits per year, which limits the ability to combine detours or avoid overlapping work zones.
Magnitude of Infrastructure Work – Councilman Gross highlighted the massive scale of current utility replacements, noting that pipes from the 1970s–2000s were neglected and are now being replaced all at once. PWSA’s 2026 map showed extensive work in many districts, including Council District 7. It was clarified that some streets appear red due to lead service line replacements (one or two houses per block). PWSA reported that in 2026, it had about 1,000 sites for maintenance or repair, with approximately $26 million in operations spending, and noted that it is on pace to complete the residential lead service line replacement program by the end of 2027.
Data Transparency and Public Communication – Councilman Gross urged utilities and DOMI to produce retrospective maps showing where infrastructure has been fully replaced, so residents can see progress (e.g., 90% of a neighborhood done). PWSA and DOMI agreed to explore this. He also asked for annual mileage and spending data from each utility. People’s Gas reported replacing 21 miles ($47 million) in 2025 and 16 miles ($33 million) in 2024. Columbia Gas and PWSA did not have 2026 figures immediately available but committed to providing them.
Contractor Landscape – Councilman Gross asked major contractors used by each utility. PWSA’s biggest contractor is Independent Enterprises; its paving contractors are Felino and Mealy. People’s Gas uses Lindy Paving for large-scale work and smaller contractors for maintenance. Columbia Gas’s biggest contractors include Casper Colosimo, Golden Triangle Construction, and others. Gross noted that residents often mistake subcontractors for utility employees and urged better public education.
Pedestrian Access and Safety – Councilwoman Strasberger raised concerns about maintaining pedestrian access, especially for people with disabilities, during construction. DOMI noted that traffic control plans are reviewed for pedestrian and bicycle access. Utilities emphasized compliance with the Pittsburgh Right-of-Way Manual and the use of flaggers to assist those with mobility limitations. PWSA is working with DOMI to improve on-site expertise for pedestrian safety.
No Parking Signs – Strasberger asked about making no parking signs easier to read and more consistent. DOMI acknowledged the current system limits flexibility but is standardizing signs and working on emergency templates. DOMI is also updating guidance and coordinating with public safety on towing. Signs must be posted 48 hours in advance, except for emergencies.
Restoration Warranties and Discrepancies – DOMI’s Brian explained that after restoration is inspected and signed off, there is a two-year warranty under which utilities are responsible for deficiencies. If new issues arise (e.g., water pooling), a new permitting process begins. Strasberger advised residents to report problems promptly.
Permit Lookup – Strasberger asked whether residents can look up permits on their street. DOMI’s OneStopPGH portal has an obstructions map, but it is not very user-friendly. A better resource is being developed.
Potential City-Led Restoration – Councilmembers Gross and Strasberger revived an idea for the city to handle all final street restoration (milling and paving), with utilities paying a fee. This could leverage the city’s lower paving costs and improve coordination. Utilities expressed openness to exploring paving co-ops, noting that local governments often get better pricing. DOMI acknowledged this would require significant expansion of its staff and a careful cost-benefit analysis.
I could take that one. So councilwoman, we're going to try to get the list out to council members as early as possible. I think it's been the beginning of the year every year. I think we're going to try to get it to you by the end of the this year. And this way you could add to that list of possible roads that you would like to get paved. And then once we receive it, we could give it to Brian and his group, and they could coordinate with the utilities on any conflicts that can happen. Yeah. And then but what about a year's out? Like I do we have even like the disco, well, this one doesn't really rise to the level of repaving next year, but we save that in a year. We you know through our own data collection, our own street you know, street data collection. We stinked that by two years out is going to need to be dug out or research anyway, let's get that on the list for you know utilities to do their data now so that it could need to be a co-op rather than the city or repaves, you know, in and um in coalition with them or in partnership with them. Right. I mean, we're looking to eventually have maybe a three to five year plan for our roads for paving. Um, but like I said with the budget constraints and everything, it's kind of hard to do, but it's a goal that we're looking at do to do in Domi to share with council members. Okay, so it's the goal. That's great. Okay. Uh those are all my questions. Thank you. This is always a great conversation. I'll look forward to my colleagues' questions as well. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Councilman. Appreciate it. Um, okay, up next, uh Councilman Wilson. Okay, thank you, Tri. I want to thank everyone for uh taking the time out of their day to come and talk about utility coordination. Appreciate all the work that you all do. I know that I'll talk to several of you, so uh you know, represents whether it's authority to the company or the or Domi about the work that's being done, especially members of my office. Uh so I don't uh I mean a lot of it lots been covered. I appreciate you know going over all the information over the slideshow, and just all the questions that other members had. The one question uh that maybe maybe I missed um the one that continues to come up because there's so much work being done, which is such a great thing, but I don't know if we all uh fully appreciate that, uh especially all the work that Pittsburgh Water's doing to put new lines in, new main lines, and there's a lot that the public sees and on their street about all the work being done, and you know, I know that's challenging to lift through construction on upload through it as well on my street, but I think the end result is you know, hopefully a hundred more years of uh you know good good water lines. So with that said, uh whether it's multiple uh utilities do work in the area, so let's just say gas, there's a gas company, and there's a water company. Uh can we just review that again, just how that how that plays out, like how you all communicate with each other. Does that is Domi the one that's facilitating that? Or what's what's the what's the parent group that's facilitating that communication? If it's just between two utilities, I I'll let them speak to it. We let them know if we identify it first, but I believe they are doing plenty of coordination without us as well. That's right. We do have a data sharing and financial cooperative agreement with people so that we can coordinate our projects together with respect to paving coordination. Uh and then you know, our teams have contacts at all of the utilities to work through any any conflicts or opportunities for coordination on a project-by-project basis. And to add in, I mean, from Columbia's perspective, and uh, you know, our engineers are reaching out to the engineers or those planning for the water company projects uh on streets. Um it can be challenging to try to coordinate quickly. Um again, the more time that we know uh in advance, uh financial resources, budget dollars can be shifted and say, well, you know, um street was not on our list, but we will need to take a look at it now. Hey, the water company's gonna go in um in 2027 or 2028. Let's see if we can coordinate and you know, uh open up the road once, maybe for an extended period of time, uh a little bit longer than just one project, but again, it's opening it up once and then doing that paving uh cooperative. So a variety of factors, um budget resources being one of them, the good coordination and the discussions among those planning the projects. I think we have that in Pittsburgh, and as was mentioned, sometimes you know, uh pipe goes bad that you hadn't identified previously, and that you know, is uh a difference that again the public may have a perception of why wasn't that coordinated? Well, we did, but the pipe, as far as we knew, was good uh until recently, and then we you know needed to go in and get it out. The only thing I can't do that I I sorry, councilman I'd add briefly too.