PITTSBURGH — The National Transportation Safety Board will be at the scene of the collapsed bridge in Frick Park for a number of days as it takes a “microscope” to the situation to determine what led the structure to fall into the ravine below it Friday morning.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said during a news conference Saturday she is unsure exactly how long the NTSB will be in Pittsburgh as crews work to remove the Port Authority bus and other vehicles from the rubble and determine whether there are any other parts of the wreckage to inspect.
Homendy stressed that the cause of the collapse will not be determined while NTSB officials are on scene, and that a final report can be expected in 12 to 18 months. She said a preliminary report could be expected in the next 10 days.
While the NTSB is in Pittsburgh, crews will focus on documenting the scene of the collapse before diving into the bridge’s history of engineering, construction, maintenance and inspections when they return to their offices.
“Over the next several days, and over the next several weeks, we’ll be collecting a lot of information,” Homendy said.
Homendy said a crash reconstructionist flew a drone Saturday morning and mapped the scene. The NTSB also performed an initial inspection of the structure and the legs under the deck of the bridge, she said.
“We want to see how the structure came to rest, and we’re looking for like things like signs of corrosion, signs of fatigue cracking,” she said.
Citing statistics about the condition of bridges across Pennsylvania — state records show Allegheny County has the highest number of bridges in the state in poor condition (176), as well as the highest number of bridges overall — Homendy said the destruction in Frick Park should serve as a wakeup call.
“This is a call to action because we have aging transportation infrastructure bridges, tunnels and that is something that can begin to be addressed immediately,” she said.
Homenday said that viewing the destruction at the scene “takes your breath away.”
“When you're next to the structure, and you're underneath the structure, the damage is massive,” she said.
“We’re really fortunate that no one died. When I look at the bus and the position of the bus and the position of the vehicles, I’m really thankful that nobody lost their life in this collapse.”
Officials continue to warn the public that Frick Park remains closed as the investigation and cleanup continue.
The collapse came in the wake of troubling inspections dating to 2011 that show the aging span has been rated in poor condition, according to the National Bridge Inventory.
Records from the inventory show that the bridge was consistently found to be in poor shape during inspections from 2011 to 2017, with estimated repairs at $1.5 million.
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said the bridge was last inspected in September 2021. A statewide report from last year noted the bridge was still in poor condition.
The bridge, owned by the city of Pittsburgh, was a 497-foot bridge with a three-span steel rigid frame and carried some 14,000 vehicles a day.
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