'It is outrageous': Pittsburgh leaders, residents seek answers after poor-rated bridge collapses

First responders formed a human chain just before dawn Friday to reach down and rescue motorists and passengers who fell more than 100 feet when a bridge over Pittsburgh’s Frick Park collapsed down an icy ravine.

Most of those caught in the collapse were not severely injured and were able to move on their own, city fire Chief Darryl Jones said.

“We got the people up on top and evaluated,” he said.

The Forbes Avenue bridge over Fern Hollow Creek and Tranquil Trail collapsed about 6:40 a.m., authorities said. At least 10 people were injured, though none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

Three people were taken to UPMC Presbyterian hospital. A fourth was treated and released from UPMC Shadyside. All of the injured adults were in fair condition, according to the health system.

“We were fortunate,” Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said at the scene.

The collapse happened the same day President Biden was to speak in Pittsburgh about the need for infrastructure funding. Biden and his entourage stopped at the site before heading to his planned speaking engagement in Hazelwood.

“We are so far behind in infrastructure,” he said to officials gathered at the edge of the crumpled bridge. “We used to be first.”

Biden stayed about 10 minutes, speaking with elected leaders and first responders. One first responder told the president that in the first minutes after the collapse, it wasn’t clear if a ruptured gas line at the scene caused the collapse or was a result of the collapse.

The ruptured line sent the smell of natural gas spewing into the neighborhood, a mix of residential and commercial properties. Authorities said they temporarily evacuated several households.

The first responder told Biden there were a few people on the trails below the bridge, one of whom helped first responders rescue people in the cars that tumbled down the ravine.

More than 100 feet below the president, several cars and a public bus remained perched among the jagged bridge debris.

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A red Ford pickup sat perpendicular to the roadway, pointing directly up the trail, with its emergency lights flashing. A champagne-colored Subaru Outback rested nearby, its front end pointing skyward. A red Port Authority articulated bus rested yards away on the other side of an enormous piece of what had been the bridge’s deck.

The 61B bus was headed outbound on the Braddock-Swissvale run. It had nearly reached the eastern side when the span began to collapse.

“As I was driving across, in my mind, I knew the bridge was collapsing,” bus driver Daryl Luciani told Tribune-Review news partner WPXI-TV. “I could just feel it. The bus was bouncing and shaking. It seemed long, but it was probably less than a minute. The bus finally came to a stop.”

Luciani said he was grateful for the first responders.

“They came down the hill with the flashlights. Like I said, it was still dark,” he said. “They brought a rope over to our door. They tied it to the railing. It was icy. And we were able to get the passengers off and myself.”

Trisha Wood of East End Avenue described several other cars that had toppled on the Squirrel Hill side of the bridge. One car was on its roof.

“One is at the bottom,” she said. “It’s just crushed.”

The bridge, one of hundreds that crisscross Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, carries Forbes over the park near South Braddock Avenue. It is a major artery between Squirrel Hill and Regent Square, Wilkinsburg, Swissvale and the Parkway East.

The 447-foot span was built in 1970, according to PennDOT records. It was rated in poor condition and restricted to vehicles weighing no more than 26 tons, or 52,000 pounds.

A 2019 Port Authority report said articulated buses have a curb weight of roughly 40,000, which includes the vehicle and a full tank of gas. With a full capacity, the gross weight would be just over 66,000 pounds, the report said.

Port Authority did not respond to questions about the weight of the bus.

Biden said he didn’t realize just how many bridges are in Pittsburgh.

“We’re going to fix them all,” he said.

The city’s Department of Parks & Recreation said Frick Park will remain closed until further notice.

Frick Park is CLOSED until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation. pic.twitter.com/X6OjeERc42

— CitiParks: Pittsburgh Parks & Recreation (@CitiParks) January 29, 2022

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were on scene Friday evening and starting the early phases of their investigation. The team has been coordinating with local agencies and must first map out the collapse before anything is moved.

“Then we’ll begin the process of removing things — it’s kind of like peeling the layers of an onion to see where things were and where they ended up in the collapse,” said lead investigator Dennis Collins.

He said the team will also begin looking for indications of where the collapse began — that can include things like signs of stress, fractures or deterioration — but stressed that they have not even begun that investigative process yet.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said investigators on Saturday will go down to where the bridge collapsed. Until then, she said, crews are documenting the scene and getting cranes into position.

She said the investigation could take 12 to 18 months or longer.

The bridge was last inspected in September, Gainey said.

Councilman Corey O’Connor, whose district includes the area of the collapse, said the last time work was done on the bridge was two years ago. Steel beams under the bridge were replaced with a bungee-type apparatus, he said, and the bridge was paved.

He said the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure is combing through the September report that gave the bridge a rating of “poor.”

“I don’t know what that ultimately means,” he said of the rating. “I think we have to, as a city moving forward, with so many tunnels, bridges, things like that, we have to look at what those inspections mean in greater detail.”

Jones, the fire chief, said he knows people want answers, and the cause of the collapse is under investigation.

“In the end, as of right now, this is just one major inconvenience,” he said. “People have to find a different way to work, a different way home. It’s going to cause traffic congestion. But overall, with the potential that there was, I think we came out ahead on this one.”

Local resident Jorge Santiago, 39, said on typical weekdays from around 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. that the bridge is “always super packed and full of cars and kids and school buses.”

He was alarmed to learn that the bridge had been deemed in “poor” condition for years.

“It is outrageous,” Santiago said. “There’s got to be some accountability because this could have been a really big tragedy.”

Staff writer Natasha Lindstrom and Deputy Managing Editor Jason Cato contributed to this report.