City engineer navigated challenges
The tail end of Fred Reginella’s long career as a director of engineering and construction for the City of Pittsburgh was frustrating.
A higher-ranking city official caused traffic mayhem by closing Smallman Street on a weekday without telling him — a major pet peeve for Mr. Reginella, who wanted to approve major decisions. And the city’s budget woes became so severe that his office was dramatically downsized and eventually eliminated at the end of 2004, when the 71-year-old decided to retire.
But that was just the nature of his job. Though financial and engineering problems came to a head that year, challenges marked Mr. Reginella’s 10-year tenure as chief overseer of Pittsburgh’s streets, traffic and construction projects during a difficult era for the city.
Mr. Reginella, described by family and colleagues as a meticulous manager and effective communicator, died Sunday at his home in Oakmont. He was 84.
“He was the complaint center, but he had a terrific personality,” said Joe Reginella, one of Fred Reginella’s three children. “He could handle situations that were stressful in a calm manner. No matter what the situation was, he was always respectful, fair with everybody. I can’t remember my father ever raising his voice.”
Born in 1933 as Federico Reginella, he grew up on a farm in rural Italy. His father immigrated to the United States when Federico was a young boy, finding a job and sending money back to the farm.
The Great Depression in the United States presented more opportunities than the poverty hitting Italian farms at that time, Joe Reginella said.
Mr. Reginella joined his father at the age of 16, moving to Bloomfield and enrolling in Schenley High School. About a year later — still speaking little English — he enrolled in the civil engineering program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Learning complex design theory while overcoming the language barrier helped shape Mr. Reginella’s work ethic as he launched his career working for big engineering firms.
“He’d just say, ‘It wasn’t easy,’” Joe Reginella recalled. “He was highly intelligent and highly analytical, but very humble.”
Mr. Reginella rose through the ranks of the private sector in the 1960s and 1970s, serving as chief structural engineer at several companies. He was a big name in the business when Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri asked him to join the Engineering and Construction Department as an assistant director. In 1994, Mayor Tom Murphy named him director.
He put in long hours and insisted on personally reviewing everything, said Darryl Phillips, who worked under Mr. Reginella as the city’s traffic engineer from 1994 to 2004.
“His signature was not a formality,” said Mr. Phillips, who now works for engineering firm WSP USA. “He needed to make sure he actually accepted anything that was being done.”
Pittsburgh’s urban landscape at that time was a far cry from today’s push for better mobility with bike lanes, ride-hailing, smart traffic signals and sustainable development. The city was recovering from the steel industry collapse and Mr. Reginella was tasked with getting money from the federal government for infrastructure projects.
Mr. Reginella laid the groundwork for much of the development the city has seen recently, Mr. Phillips said, such as quickly approving traffic changes on Centre Avenue that allowed Whole Foods to open in East Liberty in 2002. But he was well aware that with development came traffic headaches and dangerous situations, without improved infrastructure.
A particularly painful moment arrived in October 2003, when a Pitt researcher and her dog were killed crossing a dangerous part of South Braddock Avenue in Regent Square. Just a week before, the Pittsburgh PostGazette reported, Mr. Reginella had decided against installing more visible pedestrian signals, citing the “mammoth congestion” they would cause.
After the incident, Mr. Reginella stood by his assertion. “I don’t know what else you can do to enhance the safety of pedestrians,” he told the newspaper.
Toward the end, the money simply dried up. He couldn’t scrounge up even $70,000 to demolish an aging footbridge in Brighton Heights.
When the city merged his department with the Department of Public Works at the end of 2004, Mr. Reginella retired.
His career included achievements such as receiving the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania award for “Engineer of the Year” in 2004 as well as the American Society of Civil Engineers Pittsburgh Section award for Service to the People in 2003. City Council declared Dec. 20, 2004, “Fred Reginella Day.”
He is survived by three children, Joseph of McCandless, Thomas of Pine Francine Pugliese of Jefferson Hills; and a brother, Frank, of Shaler. Visitation is at 9 a.m. Friday at Edward P. Kanai Funeral Home, 500 Greenfield Ave., followed by the funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at St. Rosalia Church near the funeral home in Greenfield.