Biblical and Constitutional Politics
Incredible Day in Pittsburgh
Friday, January 28, 2022 was an incredible day in Pittsburgh. A bridge collapsed on the very day President Joe Biden was scheduled to come to Pittsburgh to speak about his infrastructure law.
The Bridge Collapse
The bridge was the Fern Hollow Bridge on Forbes Avenue, going over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park. It was a 450 foot long, 150 foot high, 51-year-old span, having been built in 1970. Penn DOT estimates that 14,500 vehicles use the bridge every day. But only a Port Authority Transit (PAT) bus and four other vehicles were on it when it collapsed.
That limited amount of traffic is why only ten people were injured, four seriously enough to be taken to the hospital, but none of those injuries were life-threatening. But most incredibly, no one was killed.
The lower traffic volume was because the collapse occurred at 6:45 am. I first heard about it during the traffic report after the 7:00 am news on KDKA radio. KDKA had already planned on interviewing two gubernatorial candidates in its 7:00 hour, so the hosts only talked about the collapse for a minute, as did those two guests. But it was wall-to-wall coverage all day long on all three local TV news stations: WTAE (ABC affiliate), KDKA TV (CBS affiliate), and WPXI (NBC affiliate). I watched the coverage on and off throughout the day, switching between stations.
There were several factors that kept the event from being a much greater tragedy. First was the timing. If it had occurred just half an hour later, rush hour would have begun, and traffic would have been much greater on the bridge. There is a traffic light about 100 feet down the road from the bridge. During rush hour, traffic often backs up onto the bridge.
Second was the weather. There was a light snow that led to Pittsburgh Public Schools and most other areas schools being on a two-hour delay, so no school buses were running yet. That weather also probably kept the traffic down.
However, the temperature was in the 20s. That is as compared to the day before when we had sub-zero temperatures and the next day when the temperature was in single-digits. That somewhat warmer weather made it a bit easier on the first responders.
Third, the bus was a two-section bus that I am sure fits dozens of people, but there were only two passengers.
That bus was rated at 22 tons, while the posted limit for the bridge was 26 tons. If the bus had been full, it probably would have been over the limit. But still, with four other vehicles, that could have contributed to the collapse. But still, a bridge shouldn’t collapse just like that.
The bridge had been inspected just four months ago, in September 2021, and was rated as in “poor condition.” It had received the same rating back in 2011 and in a couple of other inspections since then. A poor condition rating is the lowest a bridge can be rated and remain open.
“Bridges are regularly inspected by engineers to determine their condition,” said Tina Gibbs, spokeswoman for PennDOT’s District 10 office….
Gibbs said a rating of “Good,” “Fair” or “Poor” is assigned to a bridge’s deck as well as the substructure and superstructure.
The overall condition is rated based on the lowest score in any of the three categories.
That means a bridge with “good” deck will get an overall rating of “fair” or “poor” if other parts of the structure aren’t up to par, she said.
Bridges that get a fair or poor rating often are subject to weight restrictions to extend its life until it can be refurbished or replaced, she said (Trib Live. Over).
There are 175 other bridges in Allegheny County (where Pittsburgh is located) with a poor rating, representing 11% of the bridges in Allegheny County. That is because there are 1,590 other bridges in Allegheny County. We’re not called The City of Bridges for nothing. In fact, there are more bridges in Pittsburgh than in other city in the world. Venice, eat your heart out.
Pittsburgh is more than a city of steel. It is also the City of Bridges. It has more of them than Venice, Italy — a city that is most easily traveled by boat. Venice has 443 bridges. Pittsburgh had 446. Today it has 445 (Trib Live. Editorial).
As for this fallen bridge, it will take months just to clean up the mess from the collapse. It will then take another year or two to rebuild bridge. That means, local residents will be detouring for some time to come. But that cleanup and rebuild won’t begin right away, as inspectors will take weeks to inspect the damage and try to figure out what caused the collapse. A bridge should last more than 51 years. But that report will take 12-18 months to be finalized.
Thanks to First Responders and Other Points of Note
Many thanks to the first responder and other rescue workers. They formed a human chain and rappelled down to get the people out of the ravine. One responder used his own car in the rescue process. A couple responders were injured in the rescue, with one needing to be taken to the hospital. But again, his injuries were not serious.
However, I am sure it was a rough day, between the cold and snow and the 150-foot-deep ravine that had to be traversed to rescue those trapped in their vehicles. One car was flipped over, while the bus was teetering on the downward slope of the collapsed bridge at one end. But somehow, they got everyone out safely.
It was quite incredible in itself that the bus did not slide all the way into the ravine. It was kept from doing so by a large chunk of the bridge that flipped back up and blocked it.
“It’s like it [the bridge] got folded in half. It’s like something out of a movie,” WTAE traffic reporter Sam Hall said. “Had it not folded in half, and cracked in half, and the other part kind of flipped over, that bus would’ve gone straight down” (WTAE. Incredible).
Given that no one was killed, it is doubtful this event would have been a national story, if it were not for Biden’s preplanned visit to Pittsburgh. But as it was, I heard, saw, or read about thebridge collapse on many national news outlets, like CNN, Fox News’ radio newscasts, NBC Radio news, the New York Times, and even IHeartRadio news.
[Kent] Harries [a professor of structural engineering at the University of Pittsburgh]. said, “bridges collapse more often than most people recognize.” Unless it’s a particularly large bridge, “generally, you don’t hear about them beyond the region they impact” (Trib Live. Engineering).
Biden’s Visit to the Bridge
As mentioned, Biden was already scheduled to visit Pittsburgh on this day to talk about infrastructure. That is an incredible coincidence in itself. But the place where he was scheduled to speak was just ten miles from the collapse sites, so he made a last-minute change to his plans to visit the site. I am sure the Secret Service was just loving that change, having to figure out a safe route along side roads to the bridge at the last-minute.
At the bridge site, Biden only spoke for a minute. I did not hear his remarks live but heard clips later. He commented as I did about Pittsburgh having more bridges than Venice, something he said he did not know previously. He also noted there were 3,300 bridges in PA and 43,000 nationwide. He made the grandiose promise, “We are going to fix them all.”
However, the New York Times correctly noted, “But with such a backlog of needed repairs, officials acknowledge that the $1.6 billion that the plan directs to Pennsylvania’s bridges would just be a start.” While, “the estimated cost of addressing the structural issues of Pittsburgh’s bridges alone would come to $458 million.”
In any case, it was hard to understand Biden, as he was wearing his black N95 mask, despite being outside. His continual mask wearing when it is not necessary and despite being triple vaccinated really bugs me, as it screams, “The vaccines don’t work!” That is a matter I have written about previously (see Trump versus Biden on Covid).
Biden’s Speech
Biden then made his way to Carnegie Mellon University’s Mill 19 research and development center in the Hazelwood section of Pittsburgh for his scheduled speech. He began to speak about 3:20 pm and spoke until almost 4:00 pm or for about 35 minutes.
He opened his speech with mention of the bridge collapse. It was a perfect lead-in to his planned topic of the need for his infrastructure plan. He said that $1.7 billion was targeted for repairing bridges in Pennsylvania.
I fully supported this law for the parts that were targeted for actual infrastructure. It is a $1.2 trillion law. However, when the bill was being debated, for a book I am working on, I tried to find out all that was in it. The best list of actual targeted infrastructure I could gather together only came to $550 billion. I never was able to find out what the other $650 billion was targeted for. For that reason, I could not fully support it, and neither could most Republican lawmakers. In the end, only 17 Republican House Reps and ten Republican Senators voted for it. But that was enough for its passage and for Biden and the media to tout it as the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.” Biden did so again in this speech, several times in fact.
But there were sound reasons most Republicans voted against the bill. That includes those representing the region around the Fern Hollow Bridge:
The region’s Republican representatives — Guy Reschenthaler, Glenn Thompson and Mike Kelly — opposed it.
In explaining his vote against the bill in November, Kelly accused Democrats of adding things to the bill that are not traditional infrastructure. He also said the legislation favors transportation modes Americans aren’t using and adds to the federal budget deficit.
In a statement issued Friday, Kelly said the collapse “highlights the need for real infrastructure attention, repair and replacement if needed.” …
In a news release in November, Reschenthaler referred to the infrastructure bill as “the first step in Democrats’ Socialist Spending Spree.”
“I strongly support investment in our nation’s physical infrastructure, including upgrading our aging locks and dams, and believe we must reform our burdensome permitting process,” Reschenthaler said in the statement. “Unfortunately, it is shameful that Democrats used a bipartisan issue to advance their radical, socialist goals.”
In his own statement at the time, Thompson said he refused to tie infrastructure to a “reckless liberal wish list.”
“There was an opportunity to come together and draft a bipartisan, bicameral bill to address America’s aging infrastructure,” his statement says. “Rather, House Democrats boldly linked infrastructure to a spending bill that is full of budget gimmicks and will cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars” (Trib Live. Lawmakers).
In any case most of Biden’s 35-minute speech was on target about infrastructure and was very good. But near the end, he veered into talking about his Build Back Better plan, which I have dubbed his Build Back Broke plan or better, his Make Fathers Obsolete Plan, for reasons I will explain in a forthcoming book.
He repeated the same lies for which I will criticize him in that book of claiming the bill will “cost nothing” and that somehow spending $3.5 trillion in Monopoly money will not increase inflation. He then really lost me when began yelling and swearing. At that point, I almost shut it off. I really do not need an old man yelling and swearing at me.
Biden’s BBB and Becoming Unpresidential
This swearing comes on the heels of Biden calling Fox News’s Peter Doocy a “SOB” (saying the words, not just using the initials). I wrote about that vulgarity previously (see January 2022 Commentaries). Here, I am not being hypocritical in criticizing Biden for swearing, as I also previously criticized Trump for swearing. I do so in my coverage of his rallies in my Impeach trilogy and my Trump’s Tweets book. But at least Trump never yelled in an angry manner, as Biden has taken to doing.
That said, as I will say in my forthcoming book, if Biden were a smart politician (or smart person for that matter) he would do more of what he did for most of this speech and focus on promoting the benefits his already passed infrastructure law. That is a big deal. However, he should forget about his BBB plan. It already died in the Senate, thanks to two Democrat Senators and all Republicans lawmakers holding fast against it.
Biden wrapped up his speech with another plea for his Build Back Better plan. Negotiations have stalled again for the plan, with Democratic U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia raising objections to its price tag and showing a reluctance to bypass the filibuster in attempting to pass it (Trib Live. Biden touts).
But sadly, Biden has not given up on it. He now hopes to pass chunks of it a bit at a time. In a way, that is an improvement, in that part of my criticism of his BBB plan is that it lumped together so many diverse items it was impossible to have a debate about any individual item. I cover one of them in my article Childcare in Biden’s BBB. But there is much more, each one of which needs a national debate.
Biden also took to yelling and swearing in his voting rights speech in Georgia on MLK Day. I cover that divisive speech in my article Voting Rights Bills vs. Election Integrity Laws. Here, I will just say, many people complained about Trump being “unpresidential” with his harsh rhetoric. But Biden has gotten just as bad with his yelling and swearing. He is becoming just as unpresidential as Trump ever was.
PA Officials and Biden’s Sinking Ship
Planning on attending Biden’s speech were PA Gov. Tom Wolf, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey. All three are Democrats, and all three do not have upcoming elections. Wolf is term-limited out from running again. Gainey was just elected. I’m not sure when Fitzgerald’s term is over and if he is running again or not, but it’s not anytime soon if he is.
However, two Democrat PA officials with upcoming elections were not planning on attending: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and PA State AG Josh Shapiro. Fetterman is running to fill retiring US Senator Pat Toomey’s office, and Shapiro is running to fill Wolf’s seat.
The stated reason for not attending for both was “scheduling conflicts.” That is the same excuse Stacy Abrams gave for not attending Biden’s voting rights speech in Georgia. Stacy is running for Georgia’s governor. But the real reason all three did not want to attend Biden’s speeches is they do not want to be associated with the sinking ship that is the Biden administration.
However, as it turned out, Fetterman did attend the speech. That is because he lives in the Pittsburgh area and was in the area of the bridge collapse. In fact, he said he had driven across the bridge the evening before when picking up his son from a friend’s house. Fetterman was then at the collapse site early in the morning and stayed there all day. As such, it would have been too much of a snub if he had not traveled the ten miles to Biden’s speech.
Kudos to Fetterman for being at the collapse site all day, but it was dishonest of him to claim scheduling conflicts in the first place when he going to be in the area.
Final Thoughts
This bridge collapse could have been far worse. But thank God, no one was killed or even injured severely. Although, the next day, KDKA TV news reported that a 69-year-old couple both suffered broken vertebrae and were still in the hospital. Their daughter said they were in much pain but good spirits and thankful to be alive. Keep them in your prayers. But that does raise the question, “Who are they going to sue?” I would start with the Port Authority for allowing a 22-ton truck on a bridge with a 26-ton limit.
That said, I cannot fault Biden for using the bridge collapse as an intro for his speech. Some would say that was “politicizing” a tragedy. But he would have been remiss not to mention it, even if his speech was not already about infrastructure. But as it was, he was correct that this bridge collapse shows the need for his infrastructure law. But I still would like to know what the other half of that infrastructure money is being spent on.
And it was not wise of Biden to bring up his BBB plan in the speech. That just turned many of us off who oppose that socialist bill. Mentioning it also emphasized the failing parts of his agenda, given that his BBB plan is dead, at least for now. I will cover all of that in much detail in my forthcoming books on his failing presidency. It will be a two-volume set titled Reversing Trump, while Dividing and Destroying America: Joseph R. Biden Jr. Tweets During the First Year of His Presidency. Be looking for it.
References:
Fox News. Biden visits Pittsburgh bridge collapse site, promises US will ‘fix them all.’
Fox News. GOP politicians slam Biden as he visits Pittsburgh to promote infrastructure package.
iHeart. President Biden Visits Collapsed Bridge During Pittsburgh Visit.
New York Times. Pittsburgh Bridge Collapses Hours Before Biden Infrastructure Visit.
NBC News. Biden visits collapsed bridge during Pittsburgh trip to promote infrastructure package.
NBC News. Pittsburgh bridge collapses ahead of Biden’s visit to talk about infrastructure.
Trib Live. 10 injured in bridge collapse in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park.
Trib Live. Biden touts infrastructure importance in Pittsburgh visit after bridge collapse.
Trib Live. Biden visits site of Pittsburgh bridge collapse.
Trib Live. Editorial: Pittsburgh bridge collapse shows infrastructure failings.
Trib Live. Engineering expert: ‘Poor’ ratings don’t mean Westmoreland bridges are unsafe.
Trib Live. ‘It is outrageous’: Pittsburgh leaders, residents seek answers after poor-rated bridge collapses.
Trib Live. Lawmakers react to Frick Park bridge collapse.
Trib Live. NTSB report: Pittsburgh's Fern Hollow Bridge collapse started on Squirrel Hill side.
Trib Live. Over 40 bridges in Alle-Kiski Valley are rated the same as span that collapsed in Pittsburgh.
Trib Live. Photos: Bridge collapse in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park.
WTAE. Driver of Port Authority bus caught up in bridge collapse talks about experience.
WTAE. Gov. Wolf signs proclamation of disaster emergency for Allegheny County following bridge collapse.
WTAE. How many bridges are in ‘poor condition’ in Pittsburgh area?
WTAE. Incredible video shows how bridge collapse stopped bus from careening into Pittsburgh ravine.
WTAE. Local, state officials react to Pittsburgh bridge collapse.
WTAE. Pittsburgh bridge collapses, injuring 10 people.
WTAE. Pittsburgh bridge collapse: Looking at inspection reports.
WTAE. Pittsburgh paramedic uses own vehicle to rescue victims from bridge collapse.
WTAE. Video shows crews at the site of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse in Pittsburgh's Frick Park.
WTAE/ AP President Biden discusses infrastructure in Pittsburgh after bridge collapse.
Later News Updates:
Trib Live. Cleanup, investigation begin in aftermath of Forbes Avenue bridge collapse in Frick Park.
Trib Live. Couple injured in Fern Hollow Bridge collapse to sue Pittsburgh, Port Authority, PennDOT.
Trib Live. Fern Hollow Bridge collapse viewing area closed 'indefinitely' just 2 days after opening.
Trib Live. O'Connor: Rebuilding Forbes Avenue bridge could take 2 years, more than $10M.
Trib Live. Pittsburgh couple who survived bridge collapse thought they were going to die, twice.
Trib Live. Pittsburgh police officers recount surreal moments after Fern Hollow Bridge collapse.
WTAE. Fern Hollow Bridge collapse impacting nearby businesses.
WTAE. Morning update: Pittsburgh city councilman to introduce two bills following bridge collapse.
WTAE. Observation area now open to the public near Pittsburgh bridge collapse site.
WTAE. Officials: Bridge not bad enough to close after inspection.
WTAE. Pittsburgh hazmat teams at Fern Hollow bridge site to remove diesel gas from Port Authority bus.
WTAE. Port Authority bus lifted out of Pittsburgh bridge collapse wreckage.
WTAE. Sky4 flies over Frick Park bridge collapse on Saturday morning.
Incredible Day in Pittsburgh. Copyright © 2022 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).
This book covers events from October 2020 to New Year’s Day 2021 that are directly related to the 2020 presidential election. Those events include revelations about the alleged corruption of Joseph R. Biden via his son Hunter Biden. However, the mainstream media (MSM) and Big Tech did their best to hide that potential corruption from the American public, so that Biden could win the election. That worked, or so it was said. But allegations of voter fraud and anomalies abounded.
The above article was posted on this website on January 29, 2022.
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