PennDOT Finds Dip In Parkway East After Greenfield Bridge Implosion
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Greenfield Bridge has been gone for weeks, but some are still feeling the impact. Crews have discovered a dip in the Parkway East from where the bridge fell when it was imploded.
PennDOT is now working to get the damage repaired.
When the tons of steel and concrete from the Greenfield Bridge came down with a thud on the Parkway, very little appeared damaged.
There was a shoulder crack that was repaired and a couple of chunks taken out of the median barrier, but other than that, the Parkway appeared to have weathered the fall very well.
But PennDOT knew to withhold judgement.
"Because it takes time for the full effect what actually occurred," said PennDOT's Dan Cessna.
Earlier this week, KDKA got an email from a driver saying there's a dip in the road at the implosion site.
KDKA's John Shumway alerted PennDOT to the concern and road engineers found the dip in the right two lanes inbound and the far right lane outbound.
"I drive it every day myself, and I didn't notice it until this week," said Cessna. "So, again, it might be a situation where we have settlement after a major event happens there."
But Cessna is quick to add it's not a hazard.
"If it would get worse, that we felt it created a hazard for the public, we would deal with it immediately," he says.
The pavement is not cracked, and tests will be needed to determine what happened below the surface
"If it crushed the base, there's a failure of the base, then we would need to dig down and actually reevaluate the pavement structure underneath, or if we just need to resurface at the surface level," Cessna says.
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So PennDOT will monitor the dip and any further changes.
"It may be a situation where it will eventually propagate across the whole lanes of traffic, and in that case, then obviously, a more major repair would be necessary," Cessna says.
But for now, any repairs can wait for better weather.
"There will be four weekend closures already planned for the Parkway East to erect the steel [for the new bridge], so we would make the determination, is it something we can coordinate with other closures," Cessna says.
