Bigelow Boulevard closed while crews demolish pedestrian bridge hit by crane

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Bigelow Boulevard will be closed for several days while crews demolish a pedestrian bridge hit by a crane Friday morning.

The road is closed in both directions from the Bloomfield Bridge to Herron Avenue, the mayor's office said. After an inspection, workers determined that in order to safely reopen Bigelow Boulevard, the Finland Pedestrian Bridge needed to be demolished.

"It was about quarter to eight and I heard what sounded like an explosion," said Polish Hill resident Noreen Swencki. "It was that loud."

"Didn't know what it was until I came out and saw a construction crane hit the pedestrian walkway up there," said John Swencki.

The mayor's office said the city hired a contractor, and crews were seen working Friday evening in preparation, beginning with removing the fence that surrounds the bridge that goes over Bigelow Boulevard. Work is tentatively scheduled to last a week.

"As part of our commitment to keeping our citizens safe, we took immediate action to close Bigelow Boulevard and begin that work of taking down that bridge," Maria Montano, press secretary for Mayor Ed Gainey's office, told KDKA-TV's Erika Stanish.

The city said it has pre-qualified contractors that it can call in emergency situations, which is why crews were able to quickly begin the demolition process Friday. 

"I'm waiting to get information on total cost and an estimated timeline once the contractor is able to get on-site and give a thorough demolition time for us," Montano said. 

Noreen and John Swencki told KDKA's Meghan Schiller they already started counting the cars detouring on their street. KDKA's cameras captured confused drivers trying to avoid the closure.

"I'm just thinking about all the traffic, and I have a lot of appointments and a lot of things I do and it's going to be miserable," said Noreen.

"A lot of people down here have cars hit before," said John.

The city said a more concrete timeline and project cost estimate will be provided when it's available. There's no timeline for the construction of a replacement pedestrian bridge.

"Our administration is dedicated to the safety of our citizens," said Mayor Gainey in a press release. "We will move as quickly as we can in order to safely re-open Bigelow Blvd, but our number one priority is to keep everyone safe, and that means taking down the Finland pedestrian bridge."

The crane was on the back of a truck when it didn't clear the bridge, hitting it. KDKA asked if the driver responsible for the crash could be held liable. 

"We're looking at what the liability insurance is for that company for their responsibility for making sure that we can reconnect that really important pedestrian walkway. It is really important that we're able to keep our folks who use that to walk to school, to walk to work, or to just go visit their friends in another neighborhood that they continue to have access to that moving forward," Montano said. 

Montano was unable to name the company involved.  

The city provided the following detours. 

Westbound from Baum Blvd:

Turn right onto the Bloomfield Bridge; continue across the bridge and left onto Liberty Ave; continue on Liberty Ave to Grant St; turn left onto Seventh Ave to get back to Bigelow Blvd

Westbound from Bloomfield Bridge:

Turn left onto Bigelow Blvd; take a slight right to continue on Bigelow Blvd, continue on Bigelow Blvd and turn right onto Centre Ave; turn right onto Herron Ave; Herron Ave will take you back to Bigelow Blvd

Eastbound:

Turn right onto Herron Ave; continue on Herron Ave and turn left onto Centre Ave; motorists who want to get to Bloomfield will turn left onto Bigelow Blvd and motorists going to Baum Blvd will continue on Centre Ave and turn left on N Craig St