OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf wasted no time trying to politicize the collapse of a bridge in Pittsburgh on Friday ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to the city to talk about his infrastructure measure.
Specifically, Wolf laid blame on Republicans who did not vote for the $1.2 trillion measure that ultimately passed and contains around $550 billion in spending for new infrastructure.
Reports noted that 10 people were injured with the Forbes Avenue bridge collapsed before rush hour early Friday morning.
“We shouldn’t have to rely on luck to keep people safe. I’m thankful to @POTUS, @SenBobCasey, & Democrats in the Congressional delegation who fought for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These are life-changing investments in building and repairing our nation’s infrastructure,” Wolf tweeted.
“Shame on the Republican lawmakers who didn’t support the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Pennsylvanian lives are on the line. It’s long past time for the political games to come to an end,” he added.
Shame on the Republican lawmakers who didn't support the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Pennsylvanian lives are on the line. It's long past time for the political games to come to an end.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) January 28, 2022
Another social media user posted a December 2018 tweet containing a photo of a completely rusted-through beam that was reported to be from the same bridge.
@Pgh311 I hope someone is keeping an eye on the underside of the Forbes Avenue bridge over Frick Park? One of the big "X" beams is rusted through entirely (and, yes, I see the cables, so it's probably not a crisis). pic.twitter.com/UQScawPEGQ
— Dr. G Kochanski (@gpk320) December 29, 2018
In any event, per The Blaze, Wolf neglected to mention a group of Democrats who also did not vote for the infrastructure package:
Wolf, however, did not condemn the House Democrats who voted against the infrastructure bill. Those House Democratic lawmakers were: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.).
What’s more, the bridge in question, while rated in “poor” condition, was not on the state’s list of projects targeted for upgrading with federal funds, NBC Washington reported:
Pennsylvania is set to receive more than $327 million in federal funding for bridge repair and replacement under the infrastructure plan, with about $49 million going to “off-system,” or local, bridges like the Forbes Avenue bridge.
But the bridge is not among the highway and bridge projects targeted for federal funding in the state’s 2021 transportation improvement program. City officials haven’t said why the bridge, built in 1970, wasn’t placed on the list for federal infrastructure funding.
“City officials haven’t said why the bridge, built in 1970, wasn’t placed on the list for federal infrastructure funding,” the outlet reported.
The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting an investigation into how and why the bridge collapsed, but The New York Times cited engineers who opined that years of deferred maintenance likely contributed.
“Deferring of maintenance over time ends up adding up,” said Kevin Heaslip, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. “And that’s kind of what we saw here.”
“We’ve been holding things off and waiting and pushing, past the limits sometimes unfortunately, and delaying these things that needed to be done because the money just wasn’t there,” Rich Fitzgerald, an executive in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, noted.
“So we got to fix these things. Because, you know, one of these days, our luck’s going to run out,” he added.
The Times cited the 2018 tweet containing the photo of the rusted-through beam:
The condition of the bridge was not lost on many of the Pittsburghers who regularly walk and jog beneath its rusted span in the trails that wind along Fern Hollow Creek. Greg Kochanski, a software engineer, was walking his dog under the bridge about three years ago when he noticed that one of the X beams that stabilized the bridge was so rusted that it had disconnected from the column to which it had been attached.
Biden visited the bridge before he gave his infrastructure speech, vowing it would be rebuilt.
“There are another 3,300 bridges here in Pennsylvania, some of which are just as old and in just as decrepit condition as that bridge was,” he said, adding, “we’re going to rebuild that bridge, along with thousands of other bridges in Pennsylvania and across the country.”
