Bloomfield Bridge

Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield Bridge

Sudden Closure

Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield Bridge was condemned without any forewarning in 1978, isolating a culturally and historically significant community from the rest of the City. Mayor Richard Caliguiri pledged to Bloomfield residents that a new bridge would be built quickly.

But how to pay for a huge structure during a period of painful economic transition from steel and industrial production to a technology-driven future?

Fortunately, Congress had just reauthorized the federal highway program, and the legislation included a special provision for discretionary bridge replacements. As Pittsburgh’s “Man in Washington” I received the go-ahead from the Mayor to approach the Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA”) about submitting an application. With the help of our Congressman, Bill Moorhead, I navigated my way to the person in charge to obtain details about the competition. I was greeted with the news that all the funding had been earmarked by Congress and there would be no process.

Disappointed, I went straight to a payphone in the US Department of Transportation’s headquarters building and called the Mayor. He told me to sit tight because President Jimmy Carter was going to call him later that day to congratulate the City on a grant for a hotel to serve a new convention center the Mayor had worked hard to bring to fruition. When the President called, the Mayor told him he would trade the hotel grant for funding to replace the Bloomfield Bridge.

The phone in my office rang a few minutes after the conversation with the White House. It was Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams’ chief of staff calling to offer congratulations because the Bloomfield Bridge was going to be the first grant made under the discretionary bridge program. When I told the Mayor, he said the President also confirmed the City’s hotel grant. It was a great day for Pittsburgh and Mayor Caliguiri. The Bloomfield Bridge was replaced as promised and the hotel and convention center went forward.

For me, realization of the Bloomfield Bridge was a formative experience that demonstrated the combination of technical, programmatic, political, legal and financial elements that infrastructure projects require to come to fruition. I witnessed first hand how the support of key elected and appointed officials could be leveraged to achieve incredible outomes for the communities they serve.

Here is how the local press reacted to the announcement of the Bloomfield Bridge funding and a news clip on my days as Pittsburgh’s Man in Washington