PennDOT’s top official in the Pittsburgh region said Monday that she hopes a project to replace the city’s collapsed Fern Hollow Bridge will be completed by the end of the year.

At a news conference near the bridge site above Frick Park, PennDOT District 11 Executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni said meeting that goal hinges on construction continuing to go smoothly.

“We are dealing with the same supply-chain issues as everybody else,” said Moon-Sirianni. “But we are super excited that the project is moving this fast.”

The Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed on Jan. 28, taking several vehicles and a bus down with it. Minor injuries were reported, but no deaths or major injuries.

The speed at which the bridge was being constructed was evident during Monday’s hourlong news conference.

Four large columns that were visible from the ridge near the bridge site were constructed sometime in the seven months since the bridge collapse. Just after the news conference ended, a 150-foot-long concrete beam was hoisted between a column and the west side of Fern Hollow, then slowly lowered and put into place. Another beam was set to be placed Monday.

Each beam weighs 108 tons. Moon-Sirianni said they are the largest concrete beams PennDOT has ever used.

The two beams were built at Pennstress in Blair County and then transported by truck into the city, where they were carried along I-579, the Boulevard of the Allies and Forbes Avenue to the western edge of the bridge site. The former bridge carried Forbes Avenue over Fern Hollow in Frick Park, as the new one also will.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said he was thrilled to see the bridge reconstruction occurring faster than expected. He said without the bridge open, an estimated 18,000 vehicles a day are being rerouted.

“Today brings us one day closer to reconnecting one of the most important things in our city, infrastructure,” Gainey said.

Moon-Sirianni said the bridge replacement is ahead of schedule thanks to emergency declarations from the city of Pittsburgh and the state of Pennsylvania. Normally, it would take about three years before any remediation or construction could begin, she said.

She said the emergency declarations allowed officials to procure a design consultant quicker than usual, saving PennDOT about eight months. The declarations also allowed the project to avoid environmental permitting requirements that can take about two years to complete, and the right-of-way easement process was also expedited.

The replacement project is entirely federally funded, with a budget of $25.3 million.

The replacement bridge will include four, 10-foot lanes for vehicle traffic, with a sidewalk on one side and a 10.5-foot shared-use path on the other side that can be used by pedestrians, cyclists and scooter riders. There also will be a new signalized pedestrian crossing near the gate house on the western side of the bridge.

City officials announced Monday that two local artists — John Peña and Carin Mincemoyer, both of Pittsburgh — will complete beatification projects for the new bridge.

PennDOT officials did not say when the trails below the bridge would be reopened. The trails have been closed since the bridge collapsed.

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