Bridge collapses in Pittsburgh hours before Biden visit, 10 injured

PITTSBURGH: Hours before President Joe Biden was to visit the city, a two-lane bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh early Friday, prompting rescuers to rappel nearly 150 feet (46 m) and others to form a human chain to help rescue multiple people from a dangling bus.
There were 10 minor injuries with three brought to the hospital but no fatalities, authorities said.
President Biden, who later visited the scene after arriving in the city to press for his $1-trillion infrastructure bill, which includes bridge maintenance, said around 45,000 bridges across the country were in poor condition. " High number of bridges rated in poor condition across the US is unacceptable. The idea that we've been so far behind on infrastructure for so many years is mind boggling," Biden said.
Police reported the span on Forbes Avenue over Fern Hollow Creek in Frick Park came down around 6 am.
A photo from the scene showed a commuter bus upright on a section of the collapsed bridge.
City officials said the collapse caused a gas leak, following which several nearby homes were temporarily evacuated. The massive natural gas leak was later brought under control by shutting it off.
Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire chief Darryl Jones said three or four vehicles were involved in the collapse. None of the injuries were life-threatening, Jones said.
Authorities told motorists to avoid the area.
Pittsburgh City Council member Corey O'Connor said the result of the collapse could have been worse. "If it was rush hour, we would be looking at a couple hundred cars down in that valley," he told CNN.
In a statement, the White House said, "Our team is in touch with state and local officials on the ground as they continue to gather information about the cause of the collapse. The president is grateful to the first responders who rushed to assist the drivers who were on the bridge at the time."
The collapse of the half-century-old bridge highlighted the perilous state of much of the United States' transportation infrastructure, which is due to get a trillion-dollar infusion over the coming years.
The Pittsburgh bridge is rated in poor condition, according to the US department of transportation's 2021 national inventory, with
Biden later adding during an address in the city that the bridge had been in poor condition for 10 years.
Built in 1970, the four-lane bridge carried an average of 14,500 vehicles per day along Forbes Avenue, one of the city's main arteries, according to the US transportation department.
Roughly 11% of the Northeastern state's 30,000 bridges are assessed as being in poor condition, according to the department of transportation database, nearly twice the national average. Those bridges handle 5% of daily traffic in Pennsylvania.
The state's bridges were given a grade of D-plus by the engineering society in a 2018 report. Its roads and sewer, water and transit systems also received low marks.
A "poor" rating, however, does not necessarily mean a bridge is at risk of collapsing, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, but it does mean they should be inspected regularly. The collapsed bridge was inspected last September, the city's fire chief told reporters.
Biden's $1-trillion infrastructure spending package, the largest such investment in decades, is already providing billions of dollars for upgrades to bridges, roads and transit.
The transportation department announced earlier this month that it was distributing $5.3 billion to states for bridge repair, a dramatic increase over previous years.
Pennsylvania got the third-largest share, a total of $327 million.
The society said the state had made progress since approving a fuel-tax hike in 2013 to fund repairs. The group praised Pennsylvania's bridge-inspection program, which it said exceeded federal standards.
Pittsburgh, a post-industrial city of about 300,000 people located at the confluence of three major rivers, is known for its steep hills and scenic bridges.