When the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park collapsed on January 28, 2022, only four people sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Had the bridge collapsed an hour later, during peak commuter time, the outcome could’ve been much more tragic.

Following the collapse, an emergency project team was assembled by the state and city and given the green light to start working on an immediate rebuild. With conventional methods, replacing a bridge this size typically would’ve taken three to four years, including the time required to redesign the bridge, plan the bridge construction, obtain approvals, prepare the site, and install substructure elements. Using prestressed concrete beams for the bridge superstructure accelerated the Fern Hollow Bridge completion timeline to less than a year.

In a free case study from the PCI Mid-Atlantic Chapter, see how the project team opted to replace the old steel bridge with prestressed concrete beams due to precast concrete’s exceptional strength and flexibility, which fueled the project’s extraordinary construction rate.