PITTSBURGH — It’s been nearly two years since the collapse of Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge.
A city commission created to assess the state of Pittsburgh’s infrastructure met Tuesday night for the first time.
In the wake of that collapse, the city also hired consultants to assess all of its bridges, aiming to prevent any future disasters.
“The reason WSP was hired was because of the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge in January of 2022. Basically we were to look at the state of the city’s bridges, make a list of the immediate actions to repair serious deficiencies and plan for addressing them to a state of good repair,” said Lou Ruzzi, with WSP, one of the consultant companies.
Tuesday, those findings were presented to the Commission on Infrastructure Asset Reporting and Investment at its inaugural meeting.
“We looked at all of the city’s 146 bridges, 99 of which are vehicular, 47 are pedestrian,” Ruzzi explained.
The report shows 37 bridges are in “poor” condition and three are in “fair” condition.
Several are already slated for repair work.
“A poor rating doesn’t mean the bridge is unsafe,” according to Ruzzi. “It just means one of the components of that needs some work.”
During their surveying, consultants recommended the city close the Charles Anderson Bridge, the Panther Hollow Overpass, and the North Avenue Bridge — which it did.
Moving forward, the Infrastructure Commission will analyze data and make recommendations to City Council on rehabilitation and repair projects for bridges and all other forms of infrastructure.
“I think knowing that everything has been inventoried and reviewed and there have been a lot of internal process recommendations to improve the internal city processes, I think that’s a good step in the right direction,” said Pittsburgh CFO Patrick Cornell.
The Infrastructure Commission plans to meet at least once every three months and will report to City Council at least twice a year.
The Mayor’s Office is still working to fill six open seats on the commission.
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