Biden tours Fern Hollow Bridge work, touts infrastructure plans at Pittsburgh stop

President Joe Biden stopped in Pittsburgh on Thursday afternoon to survey progress on the $25.3 million reconstruction of the Fern Hollow Bridge and tout his administration’s investments in infrastructure.

The former Fern Hollow Bridge over Frick Park in the city’s East End collapsed on Jan. 28, injuring 10 people and taking a bus and several vehicles down with it.

Reconstruction began in the spring and PennDOT officials have said they hope to complete work by the end of the year.

“Normally, you’d be looking at two to five years to rebuild a bridge like that,” Biden said at the bridge site Thursday. “By Christmas, God willing, I’m coming to walk over this sucker.”

Biden was in Pittsburgh the day the former Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed. He adjusted his schedule to visit the site that day.

Since, the White House has highlighted progress made in replacing the bridge as an example of the administration’s success in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.

Most infrastructure spending since 1956

Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill provided funding for the bridge to be rebuilt. The Fern Hollow Bridge is one of 2,500 bridges scheduled to be rebuilt or repaired nationwide this year, Biden said.

At $1 trillion, Biden said his “once-in-a-generation investment” in the nation’s infrastructure is the largest the nation has seen since President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation to fund the creation of the interstate highway system in 1956.

“We finally decided instead of being ranked No. 13 in the world in infrastructure, we should be ranked No. 1,” Biden said.

Biden said the Fern Hollow Bridge’s story is just one example of the dire need for infrastructure improvements across the country.

“It never should’ve come to this,” he said of the bridge collapse.

Before the collapse, the Fern Hollow Bridge was one of about 45,000 spans across the United States ranked in poor condition, the president said.

One in eight bridges across Pennsylvania are in the same condition.

“Pittsburgh’s a city of bridges, but too many of them are in poor condition,” Biden said.

Bridge set to reopen by late December

Work on the bridge’s superstructure (steel beams and other supports holding up the deck of a bridge) and substructure (piers or abutments supporting the superstructure) is complete, said PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan.

He said crews are now working on the deck that motorists drive on. That work should be completed by late October, he said.

However, other smaller jobs need to be completed before the bridge can open.

Cowan said PennDOT expects that work to be done by the end of the year.

Additional work, such as installing lighting, will continue through the spring, Cowan said.

Money for other infrastructure

The federal infrastructure bill does more than fix bridges, the president said. Money also is allocated for dams, pedestrian infrastructure and streets, he said.

The infrastructure package also includes $170 million for building out electric charging stations in Pennsylvania, plus $20 million to go toward construction of a new terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport.

The infrastructure bill also will provide about $100 million for high-speed internet throughout Pennsylvania.

“No one is going to be left behind,” Biden said, explaining that about 21% of Pennsylvania’s households are without internet service.

Another $87 million is earmarked to replace 150,000 lead service lines in Pennsylvania, including about 7,000 in Pittsburgh.

The projects funded through Biden’s infrastructure plan will create “good-paying, mostly union jobs,” he said.

Thursday’s visit marks Biden’s fourth stop in Pittsburgh since becoming president.

“When you see these projects in your neighborhoods (with) cranes going up (and) shovels in the ground, I want you to feel the way I feel — pride, pride for what we can do when we work together,” Biden said.

After Thursday’s event, Biden visited a Primanti Bros. restaurant in Moon Township accompanied by Gov. Tom Wolf, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman and others.

President Joe Biden and Senate candidate John Fetterman visited Primanti Bros. today after Biden's stop at the Fern Hollow Bridge.

Details >>> https://t.co/mY9UbhRWoH pic.twitter.com/2NHZPQmXSs

— WPXI (@WPXI) October 20, 2022