Democrat Incompetence Led To PA Bridge Collapse, So Of Course They Blame Republicans
“The bridge that just collapsed in the city of Pittsburgh was set to be restored in 2016. Instead of replacing the completely rusted out supports, they diverted the money to bike lanes, green energy programs and lanes for self driving cars”
Anytime there’s a tragedy or devastating event that happens in this country, the first order of business for Democrats is not to offer thoughts and prayers; it’s to figure out a way to blame Republicans.
The Fern Hollow Bridge collapse in Pittsburgh that happened Friday morning is no exception to that rule.
Before we get into the particulars about who said what, the good news is that there was no loss of life in the collapse. Ten people were injured, four of whom were taken to the hospital. One was released while the others are reported to be in fair condition.
Here are some photos of the collapse:
Photos shared by @ACE_Fitzgerald of the Forbes Ave bridge collapse. #WPXI #PGH #PITTSBURGH pic.twitter.com/EDyVxfdYl4
— Tony Ruffolo (@WPXITonyRuffolo) January 28, 2022
The Forbes Ave bridge over #frickpark in #pittsburgh collapsed at about 6am. Several vehicles and a bus on the bridge. No injuries reported yet. Strong smell of natural gas. Avoid the area #pittsburghbridgecollapse pic.twitter.com/ykkE4YjiiX
— Greg Barnhisel (@gbarnhisel) January 28, 2022
The collapse happened on the same day President Biden was set to visit the city to tout the passage of the infrastructure bill, and it didn’t take long for the Usual Suspects on the left and in the media to start blaming Republicans.
Voted against the infrastructure bill https://t.co/g79dGuMlIx
— Jonathan Landay (@JonathanLanday) January 28, 2022
Republican Pat Toomey voted against the infrastructure plan. https://t.co/IxncJGxkcM
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 28, 2022
Senator Toomey voted NO on funding for infrastructure , just FYI guys. So before you invite a hypocrite on your newscast, maybe think hard about the questions you will press him with. https://t.co/PR1kBaqgSC
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) January 28, 2022
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf also got in on the action, playing politics with the bridge’s collapse by trying to shame Republicans who voted against the infrastructure package:
Shame on the Republican lawmakers who didn’t support the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Pennsylvanian lives are on the line. It’s long past time for the political games to come to an end.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) January 28, 2022
One of the big problems with Wolf’s claims is that the bridge was “not targeted for improvements under the federal infrastructure bill, state records show,” according to a report from NBC News-Washington:
The Pittsburgh bridge that collapsed early Friday, injuring 10 people, was in poor condition and not targeted for improvements under the federal infrastructure bill, state records show.
[…]
Pennsylvania is set to receive more than $327 million in federal funding for bridge repair and replacement under the infrastructure plan, with about $49 million going to “off-system,” or local, bridges like the Forbes Avenue bridge.
But the bridge is not among the highway and bridge projects targeted for federal funding in the state’s 2021 transportation improvement program. City officials haven’t said why the bridge, built in 1970, wasn’t placed on the list for federal infrastructure funding.
Further, CBS News-Pittsburgh reported that the bridge had had a “poor” rating since 2011 and that an overhaul recommended in 2017 by inspectors was “never funded”:
Inspectors have listed the Fern Hollow Bridge in poor condition for more than a decade, although they said other local bridges are actually in worse condition.
The bridge, about 450 feet long, near Frick Park was built in 1970 but in recent years had shown signs of deterioration.
Inspectors began listing the bridge in poor condition as far back as 2011, and as recently as last September.
In 2017, inspectors recommended it be overhauled “because of general structure deterioration and inadequate strength,” and recommended a restoration project estimated at $1.5 million. That project was never funded.
As to the funding issues for repairing/rebuilding the bridge, that apparently was diverted into other projects:
The bridge that just collapsed in the city of Pittsburgh was set to be restored in 2016. Instead of replacing the completely rusted out supports, they diverted the money to bike lanes, green energy programs and lanes for self driving cars.
— 🅱️LACK (@libertyismetal) January 29, 2022
Pittsburgh has 446 bridges. The most in the world. Almost 40% of them are currently in poor condition. Meanwhile, over 40 years of democratic leadership has diverted funds to art projects, bike lanes and incentives for Silicon Valley tech companies to headquarter here pic.twitter.com/iPvztb8O91
— 🅱️LACK (@libertyismetal) January 29, 2022
There’s a website where people can post requests to repair roads and bridges in Pittsburgh. This was posted 3 years ago and listed as “closed.”
The bridge collapsed today. pic.twitter.com/XXneHvP4Bu
— 🅱️LACK (@libertyismetal) January 29, 2022
Pennsylvanians pay some of the highest gas taxes in the country, almost $1 a gallon, supposedly to support infrastructure. The infrastructure routinely ranks at the bottom of the country. Before anyone blames it on salt and cold weather, some of the best roads are in South Dakota
— 🅱️LACK (@libertyismetal) January 29, 2022
In 2012, Obama announce a huge infrastructure plan and “shovel ready jobs.” Pittsburgh was granted millions of dollars in funds. Instead of repairing bridges, they spent over $500 million to build 25 miles worth of light rail to carry people to Steelers games for free.
— 🅱️LACK (@libertyismetal) January 29, 2022
The thread has caught the attention of other people in the know involved with PennDot. While they were mismanaging funds and letting infrastructure collapse, this was their internal focus pic.twitter.com/Mwm6oVVuhU
— 🅱️LACK (@libertyismetal) January 29, 2022
Here’s what the PA DOT has been doing instead of repairing documented dangerous bridges. https://t.co/MV86lRUJEw
— Dr Rhonda Rhoades (@RhondaR45106312) January 28, 2022
As always when these things happen, there is more to the story than what Democrats are willing to tell you, and that’s because at least some if not all of the blame can usually be placed at the feet of Democrat “leaders” who are quick to blame everyone else.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Of course there is more to the story, the Democrats Propaganda Ministry never tells. Read no one was injured so good chance if that’s the case it went on its own accord.
“Ten people were injured, four of whom were taken to the hospital. One was released while the others are reported to be in fair condition.”
I suspect the civil lawsuit costs will far exceed the “restoration project estimated at $1.5 million” that was “never funded”.
“Dismantling Systemic Racism and Inequities (DSRI)” = pouring more resources into the cesspool. You can lead a house to water, you cannot make them drink. Some people cannot be saved from themselves.
Funny how “Opportunities for Graft” gets DSRI for an acronym.
Houses can’t drink. They can only flood.
Step 1: Hold bond election to repair, expand or build new roads and bridges.
Step 2: Spend bond money on just about anything other than roads and bridges.
Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until public votes no.
Step 4: Blame everyone else when bridges collapse and roads fall apart.
Step 5: Start cycle again.
Can I interest any of you in a late-model luxury marina in New Orleans, right on the other side of a nonexistent levee?
Federal money should NEVER be used for “off-system” roads and bridges. Why should someone in Wyoming pay taxes for a bridge in Pissburgh that they will never drive on.
If that bridge is so important to Pissburgh, then Pissburgh’s tax money should be used to pay for the bridge, or shut it down.
If state money is needed for a bridge in Pissburgh, then Pennsylvania should fund the bridge in Pissburgh. But again, why should someone in Tioga County PA pay for a local bridge in Pissburgh.
The price of gas in PA includes infrastructure taxes. Pennsylvania’s gas prices are near the top 5 in the nation, as I recall.
Pay for your own damned bridges and roads. But no. Put bike lanes in Philth-a-delphia and Pissburgh. Give the money to asshats who refuse to work. Create a plantation style slave labor force to manage the dole.
I don’t give a damn how many bridges fall anywhere but where I pay taxes.
Fund your own boondoggle.
Exactly right. This is a city bridge on a city road. It’s not even a county or state hwy. So why the heck are federal funds being used to (not) repair it?
This is why federal “infrastructure bills” should be line item veto-able (actually, all bills should be line item veto ones so we know exactly who to blame).
And it gets worse. NYC wants non-citizens to be able to vote. They’ll vote in all sorts of projects and programs that will be paid for by state and federal funds. It’s a racket. The pols who support it are racketeers who’ll skim theirs right off the top. See Bill De Blasio, his wife Charlaine and her foundations and projects for examples of how it’s done.
Why would resident aliens be more likely than resident citizens to vote for these projects and programs? Remember they pay state and federal taxes too, just like citizens do.
Illegal Aliens do not pay taxes other than sales tax. As far as legal aliens they simply do not have the same obligations as citizens. For instance, they don’t have to register for the draft. Another example just off the top of my head is that they can’t serve on juries, which many citizens find a burden. They are not citizens and it’s disgusting that you are reducing the value of citizenship to the point it’s less than worthless. Since citizens have obligations non-citizens do not have, then they do not get the rights of citizenship. That includes voting.
1. WTH have illegal aliens got to do with it?
2. There is no draft any more, but when there was one legal aliens were just as subject to it as citizens were. Where on earth did you get the idea that they were exempt?
3. In any case what has that, or jury duty, got to do with the topic, which is Owego’s suggestion that aliens will ‘vote in all sorts of projects and programs that will be paid for by state and federal funds”? There’s simply no reason to think they will do so, and they pay the same taxes as everyone else so they should have the same right as anyone else to a say in how they’re spent, at least on the local level.
There is simply no reason why the right to vote in local elections should be restricted to citizens, especially when the people of the city overwhelmingly don’t want that.
As soon as Federal Money is involved, the price of the project goes up. All Federally funded jobs have a scale wage for the trades. PA being a union state makes their stuff cost that much more. I worked for a major heavy highway contractor. They bailed on PA.
Same goesin a number of states including mine A relative here is a conrractor. He does a lot of smal corporate commercial work. He also bids, and sometimes gets, work at government (state) facilities. Mainu schools at all levels. If the job goes over I think its $125K (brey enough to replace some sets of doors, any more) it falls under the “prevaiing sage law” and everyone on the job, union or not MUST be paid union scale for the employee’s “positioin”. He has to hire a new full time employee just to bird fdog all te papwerwork, they ,ust certifyh every mongh that everyone on the jobsite was paid union scale conssitent with their “job descriotion”. Takes lots of time to sort out, put all the duckies in a neat straight long row, and make them stay there until the paperwork is turned in, ON TIME, else the months; advance funding is withhl=eld.
Thos often means he will have to hire extra “unskilled” workers, s his equipment operators are no longer alowed to hop off their mcine and scoop a few shovels full of rock to finish up a cut, or some such. He is an equipment operator, and wnovels are not “equipment’ they re “tools”. So he has to hire ‘tool operators”. He finally got sick of it all and no longer bids on gummit jobs. Not worth the extra stress and headache.
Want something permanetly and opelesslh messed up? Turn it ver to government. All they care bout is that all of last yeasr’s money was spent, never mind HOW, so they can demand more in the coming year. A fwe cycles of that, they have to hire more state “workers” (cough cough cough)
That is why that bi=ridge never got repaired. They got a small fraction of ther eal value of their money eith the bike lane and.. this one cracked me up, self-drinving car lanes!!??!!??!! Did not know there WERE any such things operating on pubic roads.
Like other deep blue hellholes, it won’t matter how much evidence you pile in front of Pittsburgh voters that the leaders they chose over and over again are responsible. A substantial percentage will always believe whatever the Communist politicians tell them (which – not coincidentally – absolves the voters of their reckless irresponsibility in voting for them).
Democrats are a criminal organization. You don’t want to drink Flint, Michigan’s water or drive on Pittsburg’s bridges, unload a ship or run a train through LA, live behind a dike in New Orleans or a levee on the Mississippi River. You can’t walk on the street, ride a subway, drive a car, call a policeman, or relax in a park in a Democrat run city, You can’t live near a border. Masked or unmasked you want to keep your children out of the filthy, falling down, schools they run. The money they print is worthless. Think about what will happen when we need an army or navy again. Now, to keep the rackets going, they want to fix our elections.
Democrats and politicians have squandered this country’s inheritance. The infrastructure, economy, safety, and way of life it took one hundred fifty years to build in the United States of America has been taken for granted, consumed and destroyed in two short generations.
Now might also be a good time to point out that people who drive EV cars pay NOTHING for the upkeep and maintenance of the roads & bridges they use because that funding is almost exclusively generated by gas taxes. At some point, the states are going to have to figure out how to get these EV owners to pay ‘their fair share.’
It’s amazing how brazenly dishonest and mendacious the vile Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks and their water-carrying media lackeys/lemmings/prostitutes are, such that even in cities and states where Dhimmi-crats have maintained exclusive political control for decades, any deleterious consequence of the vile Dhimmi-crats’ ill-conceived and foolish policies and political priorities is immediately and reflexively blamed upon Republicans.
What would be interesting is some widespread reporting that shows how much of the federal fuel tax and State fuel tax have been diverted to other ‘transportation’ projects instead of maintenance of existing roads and bridges.
A breakdown by CD on that basis would be instructive as well as the amount of federal subsidies by State and CD for ‘transportation’; Amtrak, subways, light rail, busses. I suppose a taxpayer from a rural State might gain some benefit from seaport funds but I suspect those numbers skew towards northeast and west coast ports v gulf ports or mid/southern Atlantic ports.
Might be tin-foil hat territory, but I find it hard to believe old Poopy Pants China-den just happened to be coming there before this happened.
Sniff the wreckage for traces of explosives please.