Not much to see after crews move in machinery

The site of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse was mostly quiet Sunday, although the scene in Frick Park continues to attract gawkers looking to catch a glimpse of the devastation.

Braddock Trail, which leads to a police barrier at the base of the collapsed bridge in Point Breeze, was busy with hikers and dog-walkers eager to see the site. The bridge had carried busy Forbes Avenue over a ravine there.

Colleen Gulyas, who along with her husband and mother, came all the way from Vandergrift, Westmoreland County.

“It’s been in the papers and on the news,” Ms. Gulyas said.

With nothing to do this Sunday morning, the three made the 40minute drive to Frick Park.

Louise Phillips, Ms. Gulyas’ mother, considered this her “day out” after being confined to the house the past few days because of the weather.

The three said they were disappointed when they couldn’t see the bridge from the trail. Ms. Gulyas said they would make the most of their outing with a trip to Construction Junction, the secondhand building materials store in the East End.

Another couple made it as far as the police outpost on South Braddock Avenue — about a block away from the bridge — before they were turned around. They had been hoping to make it closer, but the officer on duty stopped them.

“Where’s the bridge?” the man asked.

The couple said they were heading to the other side of the ravine, where they hoped to get a peek, even though the observation area has been closed to the public.

While little activity was taking place on Sunday, the site is being prepared for demolition.

Work crews have built a road at the site to give construction vehicles access to the debris sitting in the ravine, according to KDKATV, the Pittsburgh PostGazette’s news partner.

Swank Construction has been hired to handle demolition of the bridge, but first workers will also be moving pieces of the collapsed structure to allow National Transportation Safety Board investigators full access to the site.

“They are doing demolition to assist with the NTSB investigation at the moment,” Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s District 11 executive, told KDKA. “The NTSB needs to see some things that may have been covered in concrete or may need some things moved for their investigation to continue. So, the contractor is helping them move some of the big pieces that they may need to have elevated and moved to another place.”

To get its vehicles into the ravine, Swank needed to build a road into the 45degree embankment next to the bridge, KDKA reported.

NTSB investigators were at the scene Sunday, a Pittsburgh police officer said, but had left in the morning. Only heavy machinery was still in the ravine.

The bridge collapsed on Jan. 28 while a Port Authority bus and six vehicles were on the deck, injuring 10 people. A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected this week, but the full investigation could take up to 18 months.