Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse

A friend of my parents refused to ride over the George Westinghouse Bridge in North Versailles. For my non-Pittsburgh friends, Versailles is not pronounced like the palace in France. It's Ver-sails (like he sails the seven seas). Ah, I miss  the pronunciations of Western Pennsylvania. Anyway, she had a dream that the bridge collapsed when she was on it and found routes to completely avoid the bridge. I always thought this was a little ridiculous.

Of course, most people who read this blog know that the Fern Hollow Bridge, only 6 miles away from the Westinghouse Bridge, collapsed on Friday. This bridge goes over Frick Park and links Point Breeze and Regent Square to Squirrel Hill. Again, for my non-Pittsburgh friends, this bridge is at the start of Forbes Avenue, one of Pittsburgh's most essential streets, which goes through Squirrel Hill, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and into downtown. As another reference, this bridge is about 2 miles from the Tree of Life synagogue. And I've gone over the Fern Hollow Bridge hundreds of times.

Amazingly, there were no casualties or even serious injuries. While four people went to the hospital, this could have been disastrous. A lot of talk is naturally going to be about infrastructure. And it should be. The fact that more than $4 billion in PennDOT revenues from the state's Motor License Fund was "diverted to other areas of state government, including  $2.45 billion to the Pennsylvania State Police to help subsidize police coverage in communities without local law enforcement" is certainly problematic. Pennsylvania has one the highest gas taxes in the country, and the turnpike brings in millions (if not billions) in revenue each year. That money is supposed to go to roads and bridges. Overall, I really hope that states do some serious review of their infrastructure. I guess the federal government actually gets some credit for doing something in passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That money needs to turn into action.

Photos by Gene J. Puskar/AP and Rich Fitzgerald, Allegheny County Executive