(PITTSBURGH) August 22, 2012   Mayor Luke Ravenstahl today announced that the Lower McArdle Bridge on P.J. McArdle Roadway has re-opened, citing the bridge’s completed rehabilitation and thanking residents, business owners and visitors for their patience. The 80-year-old bridge was closed in January last year due to corroding steel and a deteriorating concrete deck. The $10 million project reconnects the South Side with Mt. Washington and the Liberty Bridge, allowing residents to easily commute to and from the flourishing neighborhood business districts. The rehab is the latest of nearby repairs and improvements, including last week’s reopening of Mt. Washington’s Wyoming Street.

“After much patience and hard work, the Lower McArdle Bridge is officially open and safe for all drivers,” Ravenstahl said. “All vehicles now have complete, unrestricted and easy access to travel to and from the South Side and Mt. Washington. I want to thank residents, business owners and visitors for their patience during this process. The safety of our streets is of the highest priority, and we’ve taken the steps necessary to repair this throughway and ensure its safety and sustainability.”

The open bridge and roadway will help to shorten travel time and ease traffic patterns. The new structure can now support all legal loads and is expected to do so for many decades to come. The $10 million rehabilitation project combined federal, state and City funds, and called for deck replacement, steel repairs and painting. PennDOT funded the majority of the project, with the City funding the remainder.

“We are very pleased to see this key piece of infrastructure rehabilitated, restoring a vital link in the transportation system” said Dan Cessna, District Executive of PennDOT Engineering District 11.

In 2007, the City performed about $300,000 in interim repairs to keep the bridge open while awaiting funding for major reconstruction. Once the rehabilitation project was kicked off, it had been slowed by freight train traffic under the bridge that continually interrupted the work.

McArdle Roadway’s re-opening is the latest of completed repairs and improvements in the South Side and Mt. Washington neighborhoods. Wyoming Street, which re-opened last week, was closed in October last year due to failure of a retaining wall. January’s landslide left parts of Mt. Washington roads closed as crews constructed a cement wall along the hillside to prevent further landslides.