The note I took was "There are 25,437 bridges in PA. 9.59% of them were rated in “poor” condition last month, with only 34.37% of them being “good”". The original sheet was broken out by county, with Allegheny County basically being the same as the city of Pittsburgh in this regard.
> I just wanted to clarify that, as much as Pittsburgh may be particularly problematic, its infrastructure issues were still replicated across most of the US.
I agree that it's negligent to not have barriers or signs, and I feel terrible for the daughters and wife mourning the loss of their father, but I think it's shocking that someone would drive off a bridge that you can see is out from the air. For the past decade, hundreds to thousands of residents and delivery drivers and visitors to this neighborhood were likely given these same directions but did not die there. They saw that the bridge was out and turned around. It's a residential neighborhood; there will be no signage that says a child or dog is in the road! This is not a situation for an instruments-only landing in a plane, you have to keep your eyes outside the cockpit, even if your instruments say to drive on.
Edit - I also find it interesting that Google's map still shows the road as connected, but (now) refuses to route you over it, while Bing Maps shows the road as disconnected:
there are many bridges like this all over Pittsburgh
This is the really scary part. Given PGH's geography, it is nearly impossible to travel through the city in an efficient way without crossing a bridge.
In Philly, they sacrificed some of the road underneath it and narrowed the traffic lanes over the bridge to enable a very quick, albeit temporary repair. There’s no such option for a span of this length over a river — this is a decade long project that could potentially be sped up to be a years long one.
> Which bridge that is currently in operation should be closed next?
The article/video actually touches on this:
> The City of Pittsburgh quadrupled their spending on inspection, maintenance, and repairs. And they redid the load ratings on all the bridges they owned, resulting in one bridge being closed until it can be rehabilitated and two more having lane restrictions imposed.
Another comment showed the Google link where the route was blocked which got me interested. And the solution is: the bridge is mapped as one-way street :) ! (try swapping the start+end and it won't pass the bridge)
Very confusing... any maybe the reason why it has been not properly fixed.
I believe my family and I drove over this bridge, when we were in Pittsburgh 4 years ago.
I hate to say this, but the condition of bridges like this is one of the major reasons that Pennsylvania currently has one of the highest gas taxes in the country.
And whatever PennDOT is spending the tax money on, this bridge-- in one of the two largest cities in our state-- collapsed anyway.
>"@Pgh311 I hope someone is keeping an eye on the underside of the Forbes Avenue bridge over Frick Park? One of the big "X" beams is rusted through entirely (and, yes, I see the cables, so it's probably not a crisis)." -Dr. G Kochanski @gpk320
https://goo.gl/maps/9UF4kL1bxNvAFjx96
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