City Council
It will be a long climb to fix the city’s steps.
Pittsburgh has more stairs than any other city in the country, with 45,000 steps in all. This week, the mobility and infrastructure department requested $705,180 for final designs on the next set of repairs. That brings total design costs to nearly $1.4 million. Construction will begin next year, the acting director said.
Written by Amy Whipple
Funding requests climbed this week for city step repairs.
The Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) requested $705,180 for the final designs of the next set of repairs. The request brings the total design cost to nearly $1.4 million.
Acting DOMI director Jeff Skalican said upcoming repairs include Dickson Street in Marshall-Shadeland; Potomac Avenue in Banksville; Clairhaven Street in Crafton Heights; Ottawa Street in Mount Washington; and 56th Street in Lawrenceville. The department faced criticism earlier this year for repairing less-used stairs on Stanton Avenue in Stanton Heights.
The city completed an assessment of over 800 stairs in 2018, which prioritized repair by nearby destinations, population and density of steps; demographic factors including poverty and vehicle access; and length of detour without functional stairs.
Pittsburgh boasts more stairs than any other city in the country. It totals 45,000 individual steps.
Money from a transportation improvement program and a bond funded the project’s preliminary design. The bond and federal dollars from 2023 will fund the final design phase.
The design funding constitutes a fraction of the project’s total cost. According to WESA, each set of stairs costs between $500,000 to $1.5 million to repair.
Skalican said construction will begin next year.
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- City Council · November 3, 2025
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