A holiday gift? Reopening Fern Hollow Bridge will clear some headaches for businesses, customers
For almost a year, driving around parts of Pittsburgh’s East End has been pretty tricky.
With the Jan. 28 collapse of Fern Hollow Bridge, an important artery connecting the Squirrel Hill and Regent Square neighborhoods and points beyond, traffic jams and detours — and the stress that comes along with that — have become the norm.
And that’s not conducive to healing, noted Frankie Rain, owner of Embodied Spirit, a massage and integrated bodywork studio on Trenton Avenue in Wilkinsburg.
“Clients often come in and often they’re late,” said Rain. “It doesn’t bother me but they’re really stressed, and that’s not a great way to start a massage.”
The good news is that the new span through Frick Park could open this month, according to PennDOT.
“We are anticipating a reopening by the end of the year, and perhaps before Christmas,” said Steve Cowan, spokesman for PennDOT.
Related:
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• Crane pulls Port Authority bus from Frick Park bridge wreckage
Still, he noted there is work that needs to be completed before the bridge is open for traffic, “including bridge and pedestrian railing installation, lighting installation, and line painting.”
The old Fern Hollow Bridge made national news when it collapsed, sending a bus and other vehicles into the ravine below and injuring 10 people. There were no fatalities.
President Joe Biden, who was already due to visit Pittsburgh that day to tout the recently passed $1.2 billion infrastructure bill, visited the site in Frick Park to highlight the need for infrastructure investment. The $25.3 million bridge is federally funded, accelerated with an emergency declaration to speed up the construction.
“We’re just excited to have that main artery into Squirrel Hill to connect those neighborhoods,” said Christopher Powell, owner of Wellness Pittsburgh, a chiropractic center on South Braddock Avenue in Regent Square.
“The whole Penn-Braddock intersection has been affected. It’s definitely affecting clients,” he said.
At Biddle’s Escape, a coffee shop at the corner of South Trenton and Biddle avenues in Wilkinsburg, local regulars and remote workers have been a lifeline, according to barista Leah Lamberton.
“We’re in such a nook here so it’s affected everyone,” Lamberton said. “But we have a lot of remote workers, people from the neighborhood — familiar faces I see all the time. They depend on us and we depend on them. We appreciate them, especially with the bridge out.”
Drivers have adapted, something that might well be second nature in a region known for its construction, hills and windy roads.
“I’m really impressed with how folks chose to patronize the businesses in this area, even though they had to drive a little longer,” Powell said. “And how quickly they’ve gotten the bridge up. It’s impressive to build this kind of structure in this time frame.”
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