When torrential rains hit Pittsburgh’s West End in 2018, the Saw Mill Run surged with more force than the neighborhood had seen in years. Within eight hours, more than four inches of rain funneled down the steep watershed into a narrow urban channel.
The storm did not just test the system – it critically damaged portions of the Saw Mill Run local flood-protection project, a 4,717-foot channel built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District (USACE) in 2000 to defend thousands of residents and commuters just across the river from downtown Pittsburgh.