Pittsburgh: Dream or Nightmare? (Wall, Penn: price, safety, budget)

[Tombstoner]

Originally Posted by Impala26

With the Greenfield Bridge, they literally constructed a makeshift "bridge" underneath it to catch the concrete. What a waste of funds.

AND they never took off the original mesh band-aid the makeshift bridge was supposed to substitute for... the worst of all possible worlds: expensive, hazardous, and aesthetically gruesome.

[SewickleyPA]

Originally Posted by Impala26

If I recall correctly, the two high-level road bridges over Washington Blvd. connecting the Lincoln and Larimer neighborhoods are suffering the same deteriorating concrete condition. The thankful thing is that reinforced concrete crafted today has a much better lifespan because the rebar is thoroughly anti-corrosion treated.

Still it's deplorable the sloppy quality in which bridges from the 60's to 70's were built. With the Greenfield Bridge, they literally constructed a makeshift "bridge" underneath it to catch the concrete. What a waste of funds.

Yeah, that one confounds me every time I pass underneath it. I can't imagine that very much money was saved building that retaining bridge instead of just fixing the actual bridge in the first place. Is their plan to simply ignore it until it collapses out of disrepair onto the retainer below?

[Impala26]

Originally Posted by SewickleyPA

Yeah, that one confounds me every time I pass underneath it. I can't imagine that very much money was saved building that retaining bridge instead of just fixing the actual bridge in the first place. Is their plan to simply ignore it until it collapses out of disrepair onto the retainer below?

Frankly it wouldn't surprise me. Even in a world after the interstate bridge collapse in Minnesota, I've seen firsthand working as an intern with PennDOT that it seems like unless there are extensive plans in place, a bridge or roadway doesn't get repaired until it breaks or causes some significant damage.

Look at the Birmingham Bridge for example. I even saw firsthand how the overpasses around Route 28 in Etna were experiencing the same effects observed in the Birmingham Bridge. They're getting replaced, most of them have already, but that's been in the works for years I believe. I don't know what's going to be done with the Greenfield Bridge or the myriad of other aging bridges around here.

[Nebat]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

Now Pittsburgh seems like a fine city, but there seem to be some thorns among the roses. In my research over the last few weeks, I have gathered the following about the burgh that might interest certain recent Louisiana and Aussie posters or others...

The area has among the highest number of coal-fired powerplants in the U.S.,toxin-filled fishes in the three rivers, metal slag in the parks, dilapidated bridges, nuclear-style winters, flash floods and "skipping" twisters in summer, a trash problem, a zombie problem, and a Toby Keith problem, a fixation with a famous architect's ecoterrorism on a nearby creek (running a creek through your house is like dunking the Holy Mother in urine in my book),young slumlords-in-the-making snapping up $11000 houses (for cash!), a lamprey-like property tax policy, upside-down mountains, Disney rides for public transport, a university with the country's largest phallic symbol, and an iconic sandwich invented by a hungover fratboy. If that sounds like your idea of a dream, you must be Hunter S. Thompson!

Dirty, dangerous, creepy, twangy, parasitic, backward, lewd, and gross!..........beware!!.........Unless you kinda like those sorts of things...

Oh yeah, gotta love the 'Burgh!!! Planning a trip during the "nuclear winter" as we speak. Zombies will one day rule the planet and Pittsburgh will be their capital. Could do without the Toby Keith problem though! ughh

[dugdogmaster]

Speaking of old bridges.

This bridge is currently undergoing extreme scrutiny and testing. It's rusting through and falling apart as I type this. Engineers just completed a study on it and decided it is still safe enough to keep one lane open and rated it at 30 tons. I'm sorry, I'm no engineer, but I've seen bridges in much better shape than this thing that are rated at much lower tonnage. I think the engineers got their math a little wrong. You know, fuzzy math. They are currently discussing options of how to replace it, as it is part of the only roadway into and out of an area that has a large Dam, a beautiful recreational area and some residential area. I'm kind of in the know on this as I'm on a fire department that serves this area, and we're afraid to drive our fire trucks across the bridge, if need be, fearing it may collapse from under us.

Yes, it was built in 1897.











Oh, if anyone would like to see more pictures of this bridge, I do have a few more.

[ctoocheck]

Originally Posted by Nebat

Oh yeah, gotta love the 'Burgh!!! Planning a trip during the "nuclear winter" as we speak. Zombies will one day rule the planet and Pittsburgh will be their capital. Could do without the Toby Keith problem though! ughh

Maybe the zombies will eat Toby Keith or something? We can only hope.

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by ctoocheck

Maybe the zombies will eat Toby Keith or something? We can only hope.

I don't think we want that. Can you imagine a Toby Keith zombie!?! Runs for the hills!!!

Edit: How in the heck did 4 or 5 threads on this board all of a sudden start to involve zombie talk, anyone?

[ctoocheck]

Originally Posted by dugdogmaster

I don't think we want that. Can you imagine a Toby Keith zombie!?! Runs for the hills!!!

Oh, you're right, that would make him become a zombie too!!! Oh well, maybe he will be "collateral damage" when we take down the zombies (again).

[TelecasterBlues]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

I would say Pittsburgh is a little bit sweet dream and a little bit beautiful nightmare, as Beyonce might say.

I find that most of the ugly/weird things about Pittsburgh also account for most of its charm and uniqueness. The desolate industrial landscapes, the abandoned buildings, rusty bridges, etc. What could be more cool?

If people got creative and turned some of that into living spaces, entertainemnt venues, and retail outlets.

Really...Pittsburgh as it stands is just what you said, a desolate industrial wasteland and king of the Rust Belt. But if we actually had some tongue-in-cheek fun with all of it and converted a lot of the run down parts into mixed-use facilities, that would be about as cool as you could get and probably attract a lot of national attention.

[TelecasterBlues]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

The bridges...that is making me think about the collapsed Minneapolis bridge. Then there was a need to look into what bridges across the U.S., were in need of serious repair. The number was quite high. I would imagine Pittsburgh would qualify for much-needed repair on some of their bridges, right?

My brother in-law works for the bridge department of PennDOT and had to survey most of the bridges within the area...basically, our bridges are in such poor shape that there's literally not enough funding to fix the issue. We're talking about as bad as you can get, I mean it is what it is and the odds of a bridge collapse actually happening are pretty slim(how often do you hear about that nationally?), but our bridges are far, far, far worse than the one in Minneapolis that fell through.