Pittsburgh bridge collapses ahead of Biden visit
PITTSBURGH, Pa. (WPDE) — Pittsburgh Public Safety alerted the public to avoid the city’s Point Breeze neighborhood after a bridge collapse took place in the area on Friday.
The collapse required rescuers to rappel nearly 150 feet while others formed a human chain to help rescue multiple people from a bus.
The bridge that collapsed is known as the Fern Hollow Bridge.
Police, firefighters and paramedics are all responding to the scene.
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There were no reports of injuries but Pittsburgh Public Safety promised to provide updates.
Pittsburgh Public Safety also said there was an odor of natural gas reported in the area.
It comes as President Joe Biden plan to speak in the city Friday afternoon.
Infrastructure is among the topics he plans to mention in a speech.
Around 8:45 a.m., the mayor of the city and other officials gave an update to the public, reiterating that no one had been killed in the collapse. You can watch that update below.
And in a statement from the White House, Biden said he would proceed with his planned trip to Pittsburgh.
Our team is in touch with state and local officials on the ground as they continue to gather information about the cause of the collapse," the statement said. “The President is grateful to the first responders who rushed to assist the drivers who were on the bridge at the time.
The steel span, which was built in 1970, carries about 14,500 vehicles a day, according to a 2005 estimate.
A September 2019 inspection of the city-owned bridge revealed the deck and superstructure to be in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory.
A spreadsheet on the state Department of Transportation website listed the bridge’s overall condition as poor, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, means “deterioration of primary structural elements has advanced.”
Authorities said Friday the bridge was last inspected in September of 2021 but those reports were not readily available. The report has been requested from PennDOT.
