Pittsburgh's Bridges Are Still Dangerous Because They're Not Being Maintained

The collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge in January 2022 brought a national spotlight to the state of the country’s ailing infrastructure. Coincidentally, President Joe Biden was in Pittsburgh at the time of the collapse to promote the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Comments from a recently retired city official have brought to light how awful bridge maintenance, or the lack thereof, was in Pittsburgh.

Tom Joyce, a former operations manager at Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, told WTAE about the resistance that he faced attempting to maintain the city’s numerous bridges properly. He said to the TV station, “Just cleaning the scuppers, simple maintenance would go a long, long way. And they never did. They just started doing it last year. If you just do simple maintenance and clean them once a year, the bridge will last a lot longer.” Yes, Joyce explained that the city wasn’t cleaning bridges even once every year.

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According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the lack of bridge maintenance was the root cause of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse. Clogged drains caused the corrosion that sparked the failure. The span cost $25.3 million to replace, funding that could have been more effectively spent elsewhere.

Pittsburgh wasn’t spending much money on bridge maintenance. WTAE found the city spent just $1.6 million on bridge maintenance over a four-year period. For comparison, Cincinnati spends $1 million annually maintaining its bridges. Mayor Ed Gainey, who entered office after the collapse, agreed with Joyce’s comments. Pittsburgh is starting to round the corner, but it will still be years before all its bridges are up to standard.

Residents have noted bridges they see every day are rusting and crumbling in front of their eyes. Due to understaffing issues, the West Carson Street Bridge and the South Negley Avenue Bridge are mentioned as structures in particularly poor shape but won’t see repairs until 2026 and 2027.

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