The Fern Hollow Bridge was a critical connection between neighborhoods on a major travel route. Now, commuters, public agencies and school buses alike will have to find a way around it, which could affect traffic on already busy roads such as Penn and South Braddock avenues.
Two Port Authority buses, the 61A and 61B, relied on the bridge: combined, the two routes crossed over Frick Park more than 200 times per day, said agency spokesperson Adam Brandolph.
“Obviously we have to serve as many bus stops along both of those routes as possible,” he said, and the goal is always to do so efficiently. However “we’re not going to be able to make the scheduled times with a main thoroughfare unavailable to us.”
During the weekend, the two routes have been detoured along South Dallas Avenue to Penn Avenue and through Wilkinsburg before emerging on South Braddock Avenue to rejoin the original route. Brandolph stressed that the detour is preliminary for buses and could change.
“Over the next 48 hours or so, we really are going to have to look at what all needs to happen in that general vicinity,” he said, noting “we still have a 60-foot bus in Frick Park.”
The National Transportation Safety Board on Saturday afternoon expected to erect the crane it will use to remove vehicles from the scene, Brandolph said. As NTSB personnel and first responders work on the site, traffic in the area may require different routing.
When asked if other buses that travel along Penn Avenue could see their own detours to accommodate increased travel along the road, Brandolph said it is too early to say, but probably not. He acknowledged that congestion in that part of the East End can be high. But even if there’s more traffic, wider arteries are generally more reliable, he said. Plus, there are limits to how nimble a 40- or 60-foot vehicle can be.
“If you’re in a car, you can easily dart up behind the East End Food Co-op and go a roundabout way,” he said. “You can’t do that in a bus.”
On Sunday, city officials announced detour information that directs local drivers and residents of affected neighborhoods to follow South Dallas Avenue to Penn Avenue to South Braddock Avenue. Other traffic should use Interstate 376/Parkway East rather than local streets, and all motorists should avoid the intersection of Forbes and South Braddock Avenues, according to the city detour designation.
To help keep traffic flowing and away from investigators and recovery workers at the bridge collapse site, the city Department of Mobility and Infrastructure is modifying traffic signals along the detour route and restricting parking access at Forbes and South Braddock.
At least 100 feet of street parking near the Forbes/Braddock playground has been temporarily eliminated and blocked with cones; "No Parking" signs will be posted Monday, city officials said.
Pittsburgh Public Schools did not have any bus stops near the Fern Hollow Bridge, but its collapse will require the district to adjust some of its routes for transporting students, said Ebony Pugh, the district spokesperson.
“Most of the buses impacted serve non-PPS schools,” she wrote in a text, citing the Environmental Charter School and Shadyside Academy.
PPS, like all public schools in Pennsylvania, are responsible for transporting city students to private and charter schools within 10 miles of city limits. Bus stop times for those schools will be shifted by 15 minutes.
As for PPS students, “we will be evaluating and making adjustments to routes as needed,” Pugh said.
The district has a couple of days to figure that out because students won’t be in school on Monday or Tuesday; the district previously had scheduled two pre-planned professional development days for teachers. On Friday only 6-12 and 9-12 schools were open for in-person learning. Remaining schools were closed, “due to the impact of a bridge collapse in the East End and high call-offs among bus drivers,” the district said.
The district has struggled with transportation all year as it faces a severe bus driver shortage. The district started the school year a week late so that it could find more drivers. It eventually shifted routes to allow drivers to pick students up on multiple routes.
Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety officials were not immediately available to comment during the weekend on how the bridge’s collapse could affect their operations.
But in a statement Sunday, Mayor Ed Gainey announced his intention to sign a disaster emergency declaration, which will help the city to obtain federal funding and expedite processes to clear away and replace the collapsed bridge. In the statement, Gainey called on members of City Council to extend the declaration.
“The Fern Hollow Bridge collapse is a painful reminder of the condition of our bridges and a call to action to address our aging infrastructure,” Gainey said in the statement. “As the City of Bridges, we know how critical our infrastructure is to working families. They are the connectors to jobs, to schools, to child care and more. As mayor, I want the people of Pittsburgh to know that I will be working tirelessly to secure additional funding for our infrastructure needs. With the support of our county, state, and federal partners, we will build back better.”
