It took longer than expected, but Pittsburgh’s fire-damaged Liberty Bridge finally reopened last month. Traffic on the bridge, which handles 55,000 vehicles a day, was diverted for 24 days while general contractor Joseph B. Fay Co. and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation worked nonstop to temporarily repair and realign a charred lower chord.
A Sept. 2 fire damaged 30 ft of chord truss subject to substantial loads. Jacking and localized heating straightened the chord and redistributed the load on the bridge. A temporary nine-ton weight limit was placed on the bridge, while crews added steel to strengthen the truss chord. That limit was removed on Sept. 29 as the bridge’s preclosure weight limit—30 tons—was restored.