A controlled explosion that was supposed to take down the Commercial Street Bridge over the Parkway East was postponed Wednesday evening as safety preparations continue.<\/p>\n
The demolition was postponed just after 8 p.m. Pittsburgh police officers relayed the news to reporters and onlookers.<\/p>\n
PennDOT officials in a short statement said the demolition will occur Thursday. They did not provide a time.<\/p>\n
The bridge demolition is part of PennDOT\u2019s ongoing project to replace the aging structure that carries Commercial Street over the Parkway East near Frick Park. The work has closed a section of the parkway since last week and is expected to continue through Aug. 3 while crews remove debris and complete construction.<\/p>\n
A crowd of about 200 people gathered Wednesday evening at the Summerset at Frick Park residential development for a front-row view of the bridge demolition. Some stood on a stone wall for a better view.<\/p>\n
The crowds assembled around the construction site dispersed as the news spread by word of mouth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bummer, but I came over here because I had so much fun getting together with people for Big Boy this past weekend,\u201d said Robert Malys, who had been playing the ukulele. \u201cI had to practice anyway, but it\u2019s somewhere to practice in public a little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malys, who lives in nearby Swisshelm Park, said he appreciated that PennDOT was prioritizing safety, even if it took extra time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand it\u2019s disruptive, but the bridge needs replaced,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just fun being out here \u2014 it\u2019s hype. Hopefully I\u2019m back tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Lyons, who walked from Greenfield to view the blast, shrugged his shoulders when he heard the bad news.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a nice walk either way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lyons wasn\u2019t surprised that the demolition drew a large crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Pittsburgh,\u201d he said bluntly, pointing out that similar crowds formed on the Murray Avenue Bridge when the Squirrel Hill Tunnel closed on Friday.<\/p>\n
Before the postponement, the atmosphere felt more like a neighborhood block party than a construction event. Families brought their children and pets, while groups of friends arrived carrying pizzas and coolers of beer. Lawn chairs lined the hillside as people in shorts and sunglasses settled in to wait for the explosion. Some spectators wore earplugs in anticipation of the blast.<\/p>\n
Merav Amos, from Squirrel Hill, brought her family for a picnic, complete with books, lawn chairs and glasses of wine.<\/p>\n
Amos said she planned the trip when PennDOT released its expected demolition window, but realized then and there that there was one thing she had forgotten.<\/p>\n
Amos lives near the Parkway East\u2019s local detour route, and has had to deal with traffic increasing near her home since the bridge closed on Friday. She hoped watching the demolition live would provide a satisfying payoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last few days were very rough,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to see some action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Christy, of Robinson, parked in the South Side and made the journey over on his bike to watch the explosion.<\/p>\n
Christy frequently bikes through the Frick Park trails \u2014 some of which were restricted on Wednesday ahead of the demolition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt better go off without a hitch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Some of the crowd at Summerset were observing in a more official capacity, including David Shaw, global PR manager for Mammoet \u2014 the Dutch company tasked with moving the new bridge into place via a greased rail system.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery project has its challenges, of course, but when you\u2019re moving 10,000 tons of bridge, that\u2019s not something that you do every day,\u201d Shaw said.<\/p>\n
Mammoet has around a dozen workers on site, but the company\u2019s work on the bridge was a wide-scaling effort, Shaw said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be probably hundreds of people who have touched this project at some point from an engineering point of view,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When the bridge is demolished, PennDOT\u2019s contractors will plant 9,250 trees and shrubs once the bridge is open, including over a dozen native species like white fir, elderberry and American holly. The former vegetation was struggling with vines and invasive species, so starting fresh may come with a silver lining.<\/p>\n
There will be a variety of mature bare-root trees and burlap-wrapped saplings to help the reforested area blend in.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s Forestry Division is also taking the opportunity to create a trail through the reforested area that connects with Frick Park\u2019s existing trail system.<\/p>\n
PennDOT has urged motorists to use posted detours or public transit whenever possible. Traffic restrictions remain in place as crews continue work at the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controlled explosion that was supposed to take down the Commercial Street Bridge over the Parkway East was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-765311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}