PITTSBURGH — Crews on Monday evening used a massive crane to hoist the trapped Port Authority bus out of the wreckage from Friday’s Forbes Avenue bridge collapse, capping the daylight hours that saw other vehicles also lifted out of the rubble, Frick Park reopen to the public and a viewing area established for curious onlookers to soak in the destruction.
Crews started hauling cars up from the ravine where the bridge landed around 1 p.m., and began positioning themselves to lift the bus around 3:45 p.m. Cranes lifted the articulated bus off the slab of concrete it had rested on around 5:30 p.m. The bus was placed on Forbes Avenue near the closed end between the collapsed area and South Braddock Avenue.
Most of Frick Park reopened Monday morning, and the public observation area was set up after the weekend saw curious residents trekking their way through snow-covered hills around the site to get a glimpse of the bridge, public safety officials announced Monday afternoon.
Acting Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said the park is fully open aside from an approximately 100-yard perimeter around the site of the collapse, and he thanked the public for heeding warnings about the park being closed throughout the weekend, a decision he said “wasn’t easy.”
“It’s been very challenging keeping people away from this site,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Having the entire park closed we knew was going to be challenging. The thought is, this is a safe area, and [the public] can have a very good view of the site.”
The viewing area will be open dawn to dusk, but people will have to park near the entrance to Homewood Cemetery and walk the rest of the way to the bridge. Crews Monday afternoon were replacing police tape with fences around Forbes Avenue at the intersection of South Braddock Avenue to prevent onlookers from approaching.
Tranquil Trail in the park will be closed within the 100-yard perimeter, and Undercliff Trail also will remain closed. Parts of Tranquil Trail outside the perimeter will remain open.
Crews said Sunday that they hoped to remove the Port Authority bus wedged in the rubble Monday or Tuesday. Large cranes were positioned over the weekend near the edge of the ravine that was left when the Forbes Avenue bridge crumbled into Frick Park early Friday, injuring 10.
In a statement Monday afternoon, UPMC said it was treating an adult patient related to the collapse at UPMC Presbyterian. No other details were immediately available.
Monday morning activity
Monday morning rush-hour traffic in Pittsburgh’s East End appeared to flow normally as city and federal crews renewed their efforts to investigate the catastrophe.
There was an increased police presence at the scene of the collapse Monday morning. City hazmat crews and workers from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived for a second day to remove the diesel fuel from the stranded bus, which must be drained before the bus can be extracted.
NTSB crew members said Monday morning that they were still working to siphon out the fuel. A potential removal of the bus was possible but not certain later Monday, the workers said. The extraction could be delayed until Tuesday or later, the crew added.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy was also on the scene Monday morning as her investigators continue their work, which could take months.
Ms. Homendy said Sunday that her team wanted to acquire the Port Authority bus’s security camera footage before the bus is removed.
“We don’t know if all nine cameras were working or what the quality of the footage is, but we certainly want to grab that before movement of the bus,” she said.
While investigators and officials continued their work at the scene, Pittsburghers who would normally have crossed the bridge on their morning commute were left to find another way Monday.
But despite the large volume of traffic that frequents the route — some 14,000 drivers, plus pedestrians and bicyclists — rush-hour traffic appeared to flow as normal Monday.
Traffic on South Braddock, Penn and South Dallas avenues — the detour that moves directly around the closure — didn’t have seem to have any trouble Monday morning.
Inbound traffic on the Parkway East was slow during rush hour near the Edgewood/Swissvale exit, according to the 511PA traffic tracker, but the backups didn’t appear to be noticeably worse than a normal Monday morning. Prior to the collapse, many drivers exited at Edgewood/Swissvale to avoid the often-congested Squirrel Hill Tunnel by taking Forbes Avenue.
Monday’s traffic may have been improved by the absence of many school buses. Pittsburgh Public Schools are closed Monday and Tuesday for previously scheduled clerical days; schools are scheduled to reopen Wednesday.
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