Fatal Rockslide Closes GAP Near Connellsville, Investigation Continues
A fatal rockslide on the GAP near mile marker 87.6 killed a 79-year-old woman and injured her husband on October 17. The trail remains closed pending investigation.
A section of the Great Allegheny Passage between Ohiopyle and Connellsville remains closed after a rockslide killed one cyclist and injured another on Saturday, October 17.
Pennsylvania State Police were called to mile marker 87.6 of the trail, within Ohiopyle State Park, around noon that day for a report of two people trapped under a rock. One of the two bicyclists was pronounced dead at the scene. Fayette County Coroner Bob Baker identified her as Gail Luck, 79, of Germantown, Wisconsin. Her husband was flown by helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital with serious injuries and is expected to make a full recovery, according to the coroner.
The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources took over the investigation into what caused the rockslide. In an update posted Tuesday, October 20, Ohiopyle State Park said the trail will remain closed between mile markers 87 and 89, near where the Sheepskin Trail meets the GAP, until that investigation is complete. DCNR staff are working with stakeholders, geologists and engineers to determine the cause. The section will stay closed until the necessary excavation work is finished, technical crews have stabilized the area, and the trail is deemed safe for public use.
DCNR is working with the Great Allegheny Passage Conservancy to route trail users safely around the closure. Riders coming from Ohiopyle can follow the trail to where it meets the Sheepskin Trail, then take that trail two miles into Dunbar. Riders coming from Connellsville can pick up a shuttle at Yough River Park, which carries them to Dunbar and the Sheepskin Trail to continue in the other direction. Updates on the closure are posted on the Ohiopyle State Park and Great Allegheny Passage websites.
This is the second stretch of the GAP closed over unstable ground this year, and the other one still is. The segment near Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, between the Whitaker and Port Perry flyovers, closed July 9 for what was supposed to be a 28-day scaling project. Crews found two large, highly unstable rock hazards that could not be safely removed through standard maintenance, and the Regional Trail Corporation extended the closure through August before announcing on August 21 that it would remain closed indefinitely pending an independent engineering evaluation. It has not reopened since. There is no indication the Kennywood hazard and the Connellsville rockslide are connected, but both point to the same hard fact about a trail that runs through steep river gorges: the hillsides above it need watching.
Our thoughts are with Gail Luck’s family and with her husband as he recovers.