Pieces Of Concrete Crash From Fort Duquesne Bridge Onto North Shore Drive
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Witnesses say pieces of the Fort Duquesne Bridge came raining down onto a walking path Tuesday morning.
The pieces of concrete landed and shattered right in the North Shore Drive crosswalk.
Louis J. Ruzzi, P.E., is the PennDOT District 11 bridge engineer.
"There was concrete laying on the ground. It could have hit a pedestrian, and we have to make sure we don't have any other loose concrete on the bridge deck so that doesn't happen," Ruzzi said.
Before more could fall on its own, PennDOT hustled a bridge inspection crew to the location.
"We got up there right away today, knocked down any remaining loose concrete," Ruzzi said.
On the underside of the Fort Duquesne Bridge, cracks are not unusual. Many are caused by winter salt getting to the steel rebar and causing rust.
"When that happens, it pops the concrete off and that's what you're seeing left there," Ruzzi said.
You don't need a bridge engineering degree to spot the patches that have been made.
"The areas adjacent to those repairs are the ones that are falling off," Ruzzi said.
Next week, the crews will return for a full inspection of the bridge, which means testing the exposed concrete inch by inch.
"You're taking a hammer and hitting the concrete and checking for a loose concrete. If you hear a dull sound to the concrete, then we're knocking that down. We'll keep hitting it until it comes down," Ruzzi said.
That could result in lane closures on the bridge and road closures below, as well as sealing off parts of the parking lots. The work will take a few days.
"It's going to be three to four days of work," Ruzzi said.
The falling concrete is just the latest symptom of a bigger issue with the Fort Duquesne Bridge. It needs a total deck replacement, as we've seen on the Fort Pitt Bridge and recently on the Liberty Bridge.
"It's a 50-year-old deck. It's over 50 years old, and it's just deteriorated," Ruzzi said. "We have done repairs on top of the bridge deck, but varying repairs on the underside of the deck. As they go bad, we're fixing them."
Ruzzi says the bridge needs major work.
"It's in fair condition. There's parts of it that, you know, need more work than others," he said.
Fifty years is beyond the life expectancy of the deck.
A deck replacement would mean the total removal of the concrete and a new deck poured, both upper and lower, from Point State Park, across the bridge and around the curve towards Heinz Field.
"I would like to do something within the next 10 years, as far as a new deck," Ruzzi said.