One Year Later: Remembering the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- One year ago today, all eyes turned to Pittsburgh when the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed into a ravine in Frick Park.
The bridge, which has since been rebuilt and has reopened, gave way and fell over 100 feet below, sending several vehicles and a Port Authority bus into the park below.
The morning of January 28, 2022
It was a cold and snowy January morning with lighter than usual traffic on account of most schools delayed due to inclement weather.
It was just before 7 a.m. when Pittsburgh Public Safety officials quickly confirmed to the KDKA-TV news team that the bridge had collapsed, urging the public to avoid the area.
First responders rushed to the chaotic scene of the collapse, rescuing a number of individuals. Ten people were injured in total, but none of those injuries turned deadly. Four of those people were taken to the hospital.
Search dogs were brought in, as were about a dozen NTSB officials, as a chaotic scene began to unfold in the area of Forbes and Braddock avenues, near Point Breeze, just before daylight.
"We were fortunate."
Mayor Gainey was among local leaders who rushed to the scene of the collapse and provided an update, saying that there was a gas leak that happened as a result of the collapse. The gas was shut off a short time later.
"Right now we have no fatalities," Mayor Gainey said. "We have three hurt and they've been looked at. I think we have 10 who have been seen and they're okay. We're just going to continue to hope for the best and make sure we get this together."
Mayor Gainey was joined at the scene by other elected officials, including Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, City Councilman Corey O'Connor, State Senator Jay Costa, and then Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.
WATCH: Public officials provide update on bridge collapse
"The outpouring of support to help with this has been tremendous," said County Executive Fitzgerald. "As the mayor said, thankfully, at this point, the preliminary reports are minor injuries, or injuries that are not life-threatening."
"Pittsburgh is lucky in that respect."
"Technicians rappelled down using ropes to go down over the side," Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire Chief Darryl Jones said.
"They helped the firefighters that were here initially on scene. They used like, a 'daisy-chain' with hands, just grabbing people and pulling them up. It was a physical rescue, most of them are, but we have some highly-skilled and highly-trained professionals on the job. Pittsburgh is lucky in that respect."
"We're going to fix them all."
In a strange twist of fate, the day the bridge collapsed coincided with the day that President Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive in Pittsburgh to tout his historic $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan.
Biden visited the site of the bridge collapse, meeting with local leaders at the scene.
Lt. Gov. Fetterman was among those at the scene who showed up to provide support. He made headlines for arriving to the area in a pair of gym shorts, in spite of the cold temperatures and snowy conditions.
During the short visit, Biden said he hadn't known that Pittsburgh had more bridges than any city in the world, and vowed to "fix them all." "This is going to be a gigantic change," Biden said.
President Biden continued on to his previously scheduled plans where he delivered remarks in the city's Hazelwood neighborhood at Mill 19, touting the infrastructure bill, with the collapsed Fern Hollow Bridge as an included talking point.
WATCH: President Biden's full remarks in Hazelwood
"We've got to move," President Biden said. "The next time, we don't need headlines saying that someone was killed when the next bridge collapses."
As morning sunrise made way for daylight, aerial views of the scene showed the devastating collapse and the amount of debris that had fallen into the park below.
In the days following the collapse, once the site was deemed safe for visitors, an observation area was opened where the public could get a close look at the bridge and debris that had fallen into Frick Park.
The viewing area was accessible from the Squirrel Hill side of the bridge.
Several vehicles, including the Port Authority bus, remained in the ravine where the bridge had collapsed and were expected to be removed in the coming days. Nearly 125 gallons of fuel needed to be removed from the bus before it could be lifted from the site by an enormous crane.
Removing the Port Authority bus from the site of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse
Three days after the Fern Hollow Bridge gave way and collapsed into Frick Park, the Port Authority bus that had fallen into the ravine was removed from the site, making for a spectacle event in Pittsburgh's East End.
The dramatic scene unfolded Monday evening as Pittsburgh's eyes turned to Point Breeze, where a crane lifted the articulated bus from the park below and back to ground level along Forbes Avenue.
PHOTOS: Port Authority bus lifted out of Frick Park ravine following Fern Hollow Bridge collapse
Rebuilding the Fern Hollow Bridge
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge, the immediate focus was on getting the bridge rebuilt, as it serves as a primary artery connecting first responders and commuters from Pittsburgh's East End to its Squirrel Hill neighborhood and a route to the main Downtown areas of the city.
Within weeks of the collapse, federal officials including President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made it a point to expedite the rebuilding of the bridge.
Shortly after the collapse, crews moved in with their demolition equipment, initially helping the NTSB with their investigation, and then moving towards the actual demolition of the bridge.
New renderings for the Fern Hollow Bridge
As demolition work was being done and crews cleared the site, PennDOT released renderings for the new bridge and provided some details of what we could expect from the rebuilt Fern Hollow Bridge.
Big beams arriving in Regent Square
Over the summer, the massive beams for the new Fern Hollow Bridge arrived at the construction site. It was a spectacle that brought out onlookers and major feat of logistics that also impacted traffic.
Once the beams were in place, a few weeks later, crews began pouring concrete for the new deck of the bridge.
"I'm coming back to walk over this sucker."
A few weeks after the concrete began being poured, President Biden returned to Pittsburgh in October to see the progress that had made towards the rebuilding of the new Fern Hollow Bridge and said he'd be coming back once the bridge was complete.
"By Christmas, God-willing, we'll be walking -- I'm coming back to walk over this sucker," Biden said.
Fern Hollow Bridge reopens to traffic
The bridge reopened to a single-lane of traffic in each direction around 1:30 p.m. just days before Christmas.
Work will continue on the project through 2023 and officials said more closures will be needed to finish deck overlay work.
Looking ahead to the completion of the Fern Hollow Bridge
One lane in each direction of the bridge is open, but the full return is still a few months away.
PennDOT executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni tells KDKA's John Shumway that the bridge could be fully completed by June or July.
NTSB releases update on investigation into bridge collapse
An agency update on the failure of the Fern Hollow Bridge said its engineers are examining "multiple fractures" found on the bridge's legs.
A cause of the collapse has not yet been released.
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