President Joe Biden has visited the scene of a Pennsylvania bridge collapse as he seeks support for a $1 trillion bill he says will restore America’s aging infrastructure.
The President was joined at the scene by local politicians after the collapse which caused no fatalities but prompted rescuers to form a human chain to retrieve people from a precariously perched bus
“The idea that we’ve been so far behind on infrastructure for so many years, it’s mind boggling,” Mr Biden said.
The infrastructure bill signed by Mr Biden has earmarked about $1.6 billion for bridge maintenance, with tens of billions more for public transit, highway maintenance and broadband internet expansion in the state.
Ten people suffered minor injuries and among them three were taken to hospital, police said after the accident on Friday morning.
BRIDGE COLLAPSE: Emergency crews are at the scene of a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh. Police reported the span came down around 6 a.m. A photo from the scene shows a commuter bus upright on a section of the collapsed bridge.https://t.co/FrpfUTOvhA pic.twitter.com/KcFAzwJBRx
— Spectrum Bay News 9 (@BN9) January 28, 2022
Police reported the bridge, over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park, came down around 6am local time.
A picture from the scene emerged showing a commuter bus upright on a section of the collapsed bridge.
Rescuers rappelled nearly 150 feet as a dramatic operation to pull people to safety swung into action.
A natural gas line was cut and there is a smell of gas in the air, the agency said.
Authorities told motorists to avoid the area.
At the site of the collapse, Pennsylvania lieutenant governor John Fetterman said: “It’s just an awful, surreal scene.
“I hope it’s a wake-up call to the nation that we need to make these infrastructure investments.”
The steel span, built in 1970, carries about 14,500 vehicles a day, according to a 2005 estimate.
"It sounded like a huge snowplow." Neighbors tell KDKA what they heard and saw when the bridge collapsed this morning.
— KDKA (@KDKA) January 28, 2022
WATCH >> https://t.co/JSt5X1qZ00 pic.twitter.com/8c5q6VRB2o
A September 2019 inspection of the city-owned bridge revealed the deck and superstructure to be in poor condition, according to the US Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory.
A spreadsheet on the state Department of Transportation website listed the bridge’s overall condition as poor, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, means “deterioration of primary structural elements has advanced”.
Authorities said on Friday that the bridge was last inspected in September but those reports were not readily available.
Pittsburgh Public safety wrote in a tweet: “Gas line has been cut. Updates on injuries will be provided once PIO is on scene. Red Cross has been contacted for victim assistance.”
Families were evacuated from their homes.
It is not known what caused the bridge to collapse.
