Liberty Bridge (Pittsburgh)

Liberty Bridge
Liberty bridge facing Downtown Pittsburgh
Coordinates	40.4328°N 79.9967°W / 40.4328; -79.9967
Carries	4 lanes of roadway
Crosses	Monongahela River
Locale	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Official name	Liberty Bridge
Other name(s)	South Hills Bridge
Maintained by	Allegheny County
Characteristics
Design	Cantilever bridge
Material	Steel
Total length	2,663 feet (812 m)
Longest span	2 spans, each 448 feet (137 m)
Clearance below	44.4 feet (13.5 m)
History
Opened	March 27, 1928; 96 years ago (1928-03-27)
Statistics
Daily traffic	63,000[1]
Location

The Liberty Bridge, which was completed in 1928, connects downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Liberty Tunnels and the South Hills neighborhoods beyond. It crosses the Monongahela River and intersects Interstate 579 (the Crosstown Boulevard) at its northern terminus.

It was designed by George S. Richardson and cost $3,456,000 to build.

History

The Liberty Bridge is a steel cantilever bridge and was created as the missing link between downtown Pittsburgh and the Liberty Tunnel, which had been built four years earlier in 1924 as a link to the South Hills. The bridge opened on March 27, 1928, following a 5-mile (8.0 km) vehicle parade^[2] from the southern suburbs of the city, which crossed the Smithfield Street Bridge and proceeded through downtown before ending at the southern end of the new bridge.^[3]

It was designed by George S. Richardson and cost $3,456,000 to build. It is 2663' 3/16" long, though the main span is 448' and the water clearance is 44.4'.^{[citation needed]}

It was renovated in 1982 by the Dick Corporation, at a cost of $32 million.^{[citation needed]}

On September 2, 2016, the Liberty Bridge was closed for 24 days, following a fire during construction work on the bridge.^[4][5] Intense heat from burning plastic piping had caused a 30-foot (9 m) steel beam (compression chord) to buckle.^[6] The bridge reopened to weight-limited traffic on September 26, and full traffic on September 30. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation assessed the value of the damages at over $3 million.^[7]

See also

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania
• List of crossings of the Monongahela River

Gallery

• 
  View of the Liberty Bridge five months after its opening, taken from Bluff

References

1. "Holding down the fort". December 6, 2007. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
2. "The Liberty Bridge Dedication - 1928". Retrieved October 25, 2010.
3. Gruen, J. Philip (August 1997). "Liberty Bridge" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 23, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
4. "Liberty Bridge open again, but with a 9-ton limit on vehicles". September 26, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
5. "Fire closes Liberty Bridge and Tunnel indefinitely, causing traffic nightmare". September 2, 2016. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
6. "PennDOT works on Liberty Bridge timeline". September 4, 2016. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
7. "PennDOT sets damages from Liberty Bridge closure at $3 million". November 2, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2016.

External links

• Liberty Bridge on pghbridges.com
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-448, "Liberty Bridge, Spanning Monongahela River, East Carson Street & Second Avenue at State Route 3069, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA", 11 photos, 1 color transparency, 15 data pages, 1 photo caption page