PennDOT says the new Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park should be open by the end of the year, if not sooner.
The span replaces a bridge that collapsed on Jan. 28, injuring 10 and sending a transit bus and other vehicles into a ravine below.
An emergency declaration expedited the $25.3 million replacement span. Construction began this past spring.
As the Tribune-Review reminded, “Once they finish construction, PennDOT will hand control and maintenance of the bridge back to the city.”
Considering the City of Pittsburgh did such a poor, poor job of maintaining the old bridge – as evidenced in the investigation following its collapse – no one should be encouraged by the handover.
The Pittsburgh Planning Commission is at it again.
Fresh off its continuing refusal to allow Point Park University to secure, as it sees fit, its Pittsburgh Playhouse property from vagrants using it as a public urinal (and who knows what else), some members of the commission are quibbling with design elements of a Shadyside shopping plaza redevelopment.
Granted, the full commission ended up approving the makeover of the Shady Hill Center with a modern Giant Eagle Market District store (replacing an old Giant Eagle), a large apartment complex and a 400-space-plus parking garage.
But the nitpicking was misguided. To wit, the Post-Gazette reports one commission member likened the project’s hardly offensive – some might even say “eye-catching” — window treatments to “highway motel architecture” more akin to “Arkansas” than Pittsburgh.
We’re not sure what Arkansas ever did to Pittsburgh.
And never mind that a prior iteration of the commission approved such lame architecture at just about every building between the sports stadiums on the North Shore. Think cookie-cutter.
Another commissioner criticized the supposed relative paucity of the new Shadyside development’s “affordable housing” component.
Never mind that the concept results in fewer available rental units and at a higher price to cover those related “affordable” costs.
The news could not be worse for Downtown Pittsburgh.
Just as the holiday shopping season bows, lawlessness is growing even worse (if that’s possible).
Just this past week, two people were arrested after shots were fired in Market Square and an officer was injured trying to break up a fight.
Some observers have used the word “lost” to describe downtown Pittsburgh. Others have told KDKA Radio that they are uncomfortable leaving their office buildings (those actually in those office buildings, that is) to go to lunch and that they have been spat on when refusing to meet beggars’ demands for money.
It’s the latest in a long string of troubles for Downtown – troubles that solidify the reality that it is far from a safe place to be. And that reality – shootings, coupled with open drug-dealing and use and increasingly aggressive panhandling — will be impossible to alter without a major crackdown.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
