NTSB releases new reports related to Fern Hollow Bridge collapse

PITTSBURGH — It’s an image engrained in the minds of most Pittsburghers. A Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus hanging from the end of a crane in the air over the collapsed Fern Hollow Bridge.

The driver of that bus’s attorney told Channel 11 that the nightmare of that crash still haunts him.

“He’s still hurt mentally and physically. I think he’s a little frustrated about the pace of everything and how it’s going. Because like me we just want to know what happened,” said Peter Giglione.

Two years later, we may be closer to answers as the NTSB dropped new reports in anticipation of presenting its final findings next month.

It includes the city’s response to the photos showing severely clogged stormwater drain systems that investigators said led to the corrosion of critical parts of the bridge.

The city told the NTSB there was zero preventative maintenance ever conducted on both the expansion joins and stormwater drainage system.

“I don’t know how that is missed and it concerns me that they are inspecting the bridge even if they don’t have a company routinely going in and cleaning the drains which they should have, it could have prevented this. But how inspection companies are noticing there is a drainage problem as well,” Giglione said.

In those documents, the NTSB also interviewed an engineer with CDM Smith hired by PennDOT for bridge inspections. According to his transcript, he brought attention multiple times to the leaves backing up in the piping among other issues with crumbling legs on the bridge.  As for the protocol, he said the issues should have been fixed and updated after the 2011 inspection, but nothing changed by the 2019 inspection.

So since the collapse in 2022, what’s changed for the city?

The Department of Mobility and Infrastructure told the NTSB it has added five new positions to the bridges and structures division in 2023, plus four more this year.  The city also added a bridge inspection consulting firm to supplement analyses already being done across the city.

The city also told NTSB it has quadrupled local spending on bridge inspection, maintenance, and repair in the year following the collapse compared to 2018-2021.

“Well, I mean I hope this will prevent it from happening again but when it comes to my clients it appears it’s too little too late,” Giglione said.

At this point, the victims may lose out on a lot as the statute of limitations is up at the end of this month and the NTSB doesn’t expect to release its final report until mid-February.

When we asked the NTSB about the timeline of the final report, a spokesperson released the following statement.

“The timeline of our investigations follows the course of acquiring the necessary facts, conducting a thorough analysis, and presenting it to our board members for final approvals. This is often completed within a two-year time frame, but the circumstances of some investigations require more time to ensure that all steps are completed. With this investigation, we did release an early safety recommendation in May that included some findings related to the collapse and urged action for similar bridges nationwide.”

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