PITTSBURGH -- The city of Pittsburgh paved the way on Wednesday for the immediate demolition of the Davis Avenue Bridge, which officials said is in danger of collapsing in Brighton Heights.
"There's no sense going crazy over this. We just, we'll face it as it comes in. Hopefully we'll have a house when it's all over. I don't know," said Janice Tilley, who lives on Woods Run Road.
The 110-year-old bridge connecting Brighton Heights to Riverview Park "needs to come down, and it needs to come down immediately," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, as he announced a declaration of emergency.
The span has been closed to vehicular traffic since 2001 when it was declared structurally deficient.
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The city said engineering consultants recommended that the bridge be immediately closed to pedestrian traffic, that the area on Woods Run Road beneath the bridge be closed to all traffic and that the bridge be torn down as soon as possible.
"It's kind of surreal. You just don't expect anything like this to happen," said Tilley, who was warned to abandon her home by noon and take whatever she could with her.
Emergency management officials surveyed the area surrounding the Davis Avenue bridge and identified four homes on Woods Run Avenue that could be in danger. Residents were visited on Tuesday by Pittsburgh's director of public safety, Michael Huss.
“We strongly urge that the endangered residents vacate now and we have provided them with temporary shelter until it is safe to return to their homes,” Ravenstahl said in a news release.
Channel 4 Action News' Ari Hait reported that by issuing the emergency declaration, Ravenstahl can speed up the process of tearing the bridge down.
At a news conference, Hait asked Ravenstahl why the city hadn't dealt with the bridge in the eight years since the since the structural problems first became known.
"It's a funding issue. We were of the belief that we would be able to at some point repair the bridge and reopen it. We now know, of course, that won't be the case," said Ravenstahl.
The city can't force the residents in the affected area to leave, but residents told Hait they all agreed to leave.
Homeowners in the area told Hait they're still waiting to hear from their insurance companies about coverage if their homes are damaged by a collapsing bridge or the demolition process.
For the moment, the Red Cross is assisting the homeowners with a place to stay. The city said once the Red Cross assistance has ended, it will find the affected homeowners a place to stay.
So far, there's no timeline for when the bridge will be torn down.
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