The Monongahela Incline will be closed from Monday through Friday next week after an inspection found an “abnormality” in the safety cable for cars hauled up and down Mount Washington on Pittsburgh’s South Side.
An independent inspector who is an engineering specialist was reviewing the system and found a problem with the safety cable that had been replaced in November, said Adam Brandolph, spokesman for Pittsburgh Regional Transit, which owns the incline.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” Brandolph said, the agency decided to replace the main cable and the safety cable. As a result, the funicular that opened in 1870 will close for five days while the work takes place.
The agency had been scheduled to replace the main cable, which typically lasts six to eight years, and had been talking with the Mount Washington business community about the best time to do the work. That cable had been installed in April 2021.
“Replacing both the haul and safety cables simultaneously makes the most economic sense and, because we know that shutting down the incline is a disruption to the Mount Washington community, we decided to replace them both now so we aren’t going back in a year and replacing the other cable,” Brandolph said.
In a news release, the agency said the incline gets a safety check each day before it opens, inspections at least twice a year by the state Department of Labor and Industry and the annual independent cable inspection.
Brandolph said he didn’t have details about the abnormality. The identical 1¼-inch steel cables can support about 175,000 pounds each, and the second one is designed to create a redundant system in case the first cable fails.
The cables cost $7,950 each and with labor the work will cost about $30,000.
During the closure, riders can either take the 40-Mount Washington bus to the South Side or Downtown Pittsburgh or a shuttle bus that will operate between the upper station on Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington and Station Square on the South Side.
The incline is the oldest continuously operating funicular in North America. It had a series of extended closures after a major overhaul of its mechanical system in March 2023 but hasn’t had any serious problems since a Philadelphia consultant reviewed how the agency operates it in 2024 and made recommendations designed to improve the system’s reliability.
The system carries about 670,000 passengers – about half of them tourists – each year.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.