President Biden to discuss infrastructure at Fern Hollow Bridge during visit to Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Nearly nine months after visiting the site of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse, President Joe Biden will be back in Pittsburgh's East End on Thursday.
Biden is expecting to speak about how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping to rebuild America's bridges and other infrastructure.
It was a cold and snowy day in late January when the Fern Hollow Bridge, which connects the city's Point Breeze, Regent Square, and Squirrel Hill neighborhoods, collapsed into Frick Park.
10 people were injured in the collapse, with four of them being sent to the hospital. Several cars were on the bridge at the time, as well as a Port Authority bus.
It's a day Pittsburgh will not soon forget. Take a look back at the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge.(📸Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
— KDKA (@KDKA) January 30, 2022
READ MORE: https://t.co/mzOp66A0pX pic.twitter.com/7b2gUe4yDq
The day the bridge collapsed, Biden was set to be in Pittsburgh to tout the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Before going to deliver those planned remarks, Biden visited the site of the bridge collapse, speaking with first responders and elected officials at the scene.
During the short visit at the site of the collapse, Biden said he hadn't known that Pittsburgh had more bridges than any city in the world, and vowed to "fix them all."
"We're going to fix them all," President Biden said about bridges in Pittsburgh and across the country while surveying the damage of Friday's bridge collapse. "This is going to be a gigantic change." https://t.co/JripOz0L2i pic.twitter.com/dXP3LryrjW
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 29, 2022
Now, many months later, Biden will be back at the bridge site, where he will discuss how that law is helping to rebuild American infrastructure.
The foundation and deck for the new bridge have already been installed, with the bridge's barrier, railings, lighting, and paving still to be completed over the next couple of months. The bridge is expected to be completed by December and will open to traffic soon afterwards.
A White House official says that a project of this magnitude typically takes two to five years to complete, but the Fern Hollow Bridge is on track to be rebuilt in one year, thanks to a partnership between federal, state, and local government organizations. Over $25 million in federal funding is being used to help pay for the replacement of the bridge.
The White House says that funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped PennDOT to be able to move funding around to help pay for the project without impacting other planned work.
President Biden is expected to speak around 2 p.m. and will be joined at the Fern Hollow Bridge on Thursday by a list of local elected officials, including Governor Tom Wolf, Lt. Governor John Fetterman, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Senator Bob Casey, Congressman Mike Doyle, and Congressman Conor Lamb.
Stay with KDKA-TV and KDKA.com throughout the day for more developments as President Biden arrives in Pittsburgh.