Judge again orders engineering firm to turn over Fern Hollow Bridge records

A judge on Friday again ordered a balky engineering firm to turn over voluminous records about the Fern Hollow Bridge for his review before he decides whether to give them to lawyers representing victims of the span’s collapse nearly two years ago.

The records — unredacted bridge inspection reports and communications with the City of Pittsburgh over a 15-year period — could be crucial for the attorneys, who are racing against the clock to identify whom to sue over the catastrophe.

“We need the documents — notably, the unredacted bridge inspection reports — so that our expert, who is a bridge engineer, can determine if any other parties are culpable in this case,” said Peter Giglione, a lawyer representing Daryl Luciani, who was injured when the Port Authority bus he was driving fell 100 feet into the ravine below the Fern Hollow Bridge, and his wife.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Philip A. Ignelzi, who is overseeing litigation involving the collapse, first ordered the firm, Pittsburgh-based engineering consultant CDM Smith, to provide the records for him to review in November.

Two other engineering firms also subpoenaed by Giglione complied with the judge’s order, but CDM Smith has been the lone holdout.

Lawyers who represent people injured in the Jan. 28, 2022, collapse have a two-year window to add defendants before the statute of limitations closes. Some lawyers have already filed complaints, while others, such as Giglione, are still gathering information.

Giglione was one of the lawyers who attended a brief virtual hearing Friday morning before Ignelzi.

Bryon Chowka, an attorney representing CDM Smith, argued that the firm shouldn’t have to provide documents because it isn’t a party to the case. He said it should be up to the city and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to release them because the documents “are under the control” of those entities.

Ignelzi was not buying that argument.

CDM Smith has 10 days to hand over to Ignelzi the subpoenaed records. Ignelzi will then review them and determine what, if any, portions of the documents are privileged and cannot be released to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

It was not clear how long it might take Ignelzi to review those documents.

Jason Matzus, an attorney representing dentist Clinton Runco, who was injured in the collapse, said the judge “has taken on a very, very tall order” to review the all of the relevant documents before the Jan. 28 cutoff, but he said that he is confident that Ignelzi will complete the review in time to identify other potential defendants.

“Hopefully the information in the documents will shed light on who else, aside from the city, bears responsibility for the bridge’s collapse,” Matzus said.

He added that making the information in the documents known is “certainly a step forward toward transparency.”

“These, in essence, are public documents,” Matzus said. “The public has a right to know what is being done on their behalf for their safety.”

The 447-foot-long bridge in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park collapsed before dawn, plunging several vehicles and the bus into the gorge below. The bridge failure injured Luciani, Runco and several others, some of whom have already sued.

Friday’s hearing took place just days after the National Transportation Safety Board, which is concluding a detailed investigation into the cause of the bridge collapse, this week released documents including a transcript of an August 2022 interview with CDM Smith bridge inspection project manager Tim Pintar. The interview was conducted by Dennis Collins, the NTSB’s lead investigator of the collapse, and other government officials.

In the transcript, Pintar expressed frustration that the city failed to complete high-priority repairs on the span and ignored repeated recommendations to clean the bridge’s downspouts and scuppers, problems investigators said may have contributed to the collapse.

“The number one problem was the (clogged) scuppers and downspouts on almost all their bridges,” Pintar said. “And I tried to preach that the whole time, and nothing ever got done.”

Officials with the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure said the city lacked the in-house capabilities to clean expansion joints and the storm water drainage system, according to additional documents released by the NTSB.

The city department reported that Pittsburgh did not have an inspection procedure for cleaning the storm water drainage system, and officials could not locate records indicating the last time the city had hired someone to perform the recommended cleaning.

The NTSB on Wednesday released about 30 new documents in the Fern Hollow investigation, totaling more than 3,000 pages. It includes redacted inspection reports, communications among the NTSB, PennDOT and Pittsburgh officials, and contracts for work that was completed on the span in the years before its collapse.

Also included in the NTSB documents was an August 2022 interview with Rich Runyen, PennDOT’s assistant chief bridge engineer, who said he didn’t know why officials hadn’t lowered the Fern Hollow Bridge’s weight limit as its condition deteriorated.

“To go several inspections and note the increased loss and that not result in a new load rating is one of the head scratchers, in my opinion, of this whole thing,” he said.

For years, inspectors had rated the bridge in “poor” condition, and its weight limit was lowered in 2014 to 26 tons.

The NTSB is expected to release a full report on its findings in February.

Related:

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