Landslide problem on Scoby Hill Road

CONCORD, N.Y. (WIVB) - No one investigates like News 4.

In August, Luke Moretti broke a story about the landslide problem on Scoby Hill Road in Concord. Now, we've learned how much it will cost to fix a problem that some say could have been avoided.

Madaline Koliwaske said, "I know I'm 79, but I think I can still manage a house."

79-year-old Madaline Koliwaske has gone from home sweet home to temporary housing.

After living in a house on Scoby Hill in Concord for 50 plus years, she was forced to leave in August because of the slide's impact.

Koliwaske said, "I'll probably never get over it, Luke, for what they have done, and what they have done to others."

Like Janet Schulz, who lives along existing 219 above Scoby Hill; she's noticed cracks on her property.

Janet Schulz said, "It's chaos. It's chaos. It has created so many heartbreaking things for me to have to go through, my family to have to go through."

Originally, the expressway project had a price tag of 86 million dollars. But now the cost is ballooning because of the slide; slide problems unanticipated by the state, despite, as we told you Thursday night, three public reports from the 1970s and 80s warning of potential slides in the area.

New York Governor David Paterson (D) said, "We expect about 25 million dollars will be spent in order to make sure that the project is completed."

That's an additional 25 million on top of 86 million, and includes the purchase of 12 properties by the state.

Land, like Madaline Koliwaske's and where Janet Schulz lives, is needed to slow ground movement, state engineers say.

Mitigation plans include flattening slopes and installing hundreds of horizontal drains.

New York State Department of Transportation engineer Susan Surdej said, "We're doing everything we can to mitigate and remediate the landslide effects, and we're pretty confident that we have it under control at this point."

John Schenne hopes the D.O.T. is right about that.

As a licensed engineer and a geologist who works in the private sector, he's concerned about ground movement beyond Scoby Hill.

Schenne said, "Once the block of soil that's in front of these cracks moves out of the way there would be a progressive failure up the slope. And there's a very good chance that it'll fail right up to the old 219 right-of-way."

Jack Quinn (R-Assembly, Hamburg) said, "We're dealing with sliding not so much on the surface but up to 130 feet below the ground. That's why an issue of will it effect the 219 as we know it now is huge because that affects not only the people living there and the infrastructure but everything in the travel of people who go through the heart of the southern tier and in the southtowns."

Luke Moretti asked, "Can you guarantee that this won't impact the 219?"

Susan Surdej said, "There are no guarantees in life. We can only go based on our engineering knowledge and our calculations and our testing and right now we're confident in our solution."

But not everyone is that confident.

Madaline Koliwaske said, "I don't think they want to come forward and admit it that they're wrong. And I don't think they're going to."

Luke Moretti asked, "Do you think they're wrong?"

Koliwaske said, "Sure, I think they're wrong."