Bridges (Was Article from the old Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph)

[brathke at juno.com]

I forget how long the Smithfield St. Bridge reconstruction lasted - or
how long the trolleys were rerouted - but I took slides on several days
in September and October, 1966 when the trolleys were running on 2nd
Avenue.  The most unusual scene was the sometimes parade of trolleys on
Ross St and making the turn to 2nd Avenue under the Blvd. of the Allies. 
It also got busy at 10th and Carson where the 53-Carrick cars did their
normal turn to/from Carson, but most of the cars had to switch to/from
the portion of Carson St. west of that location.

I believe that this rebuilding of the bridge was the one that involved
replacing the roadway with the lighter weight aluminum panels.  These
panels were kind of like giant cookie sheets with a skid-resistant paving
material pre-poured in the shallow aluminum "shells".  The idea was to
reduce bridge weight.  I recall seeing Alcoa ads at that time promoting
the use of such panels.  I also recall that in time, the paving material
wore down, and the aluminum edges of the panels (where they joined
together) created a nice bump for vehicles.  Since the panels were rather
short (maybe 40-50 ft. long), a bridge crossing encountered plenty of
small bumps.  These panels were removed, or covered over, in a later
bridge renovation.

Bob 9/24

----------------------------------------------------------------

On Sat, 23 Sep 2000 21:38:23 -0700 Jim Holland <PGHPCC at pacbell.net>
writes:
> Greetings!
> 
> 	Now this is the first that I have heard this - I was 
> floating around
> the South Pacific with Uncle Sam's Canoe Club at this time!  I am 
> sure
> it has been done other times and have wondered why they didn't do 
> that
> reroute when the barge had damaged the understructure of the bridge 
> -
> actually, the tug maneuvering the barge.
> 
> brathke at juno.com wrote:
> 
> > When the Smithfield St. Bridge was being rebuilt in 1966, PAT 
> trolleys
> > to/from downtown reached the tunnel via Ross St., 2nd Avenue, 10th 
> St.
> > Bridge and Carson St.  I'm not sure when trolley traffic stopped 
> using
> > the 10th St. Bridge.
> 
> > Bob 9/23
> 
> > --------------------------------------
> 
> > On Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:03:01 -0700 Kenneth Josephson
> > <kjosephson at sprintmail.com> writes:
> 
> > > brathke at juno.com wrote:
> 
> > > I remember a time in the 1970's when no more than one trolley 
> was
> > > allowed on each span at the same time.
> 
> > > The following may be one for Harold or Ed........ :-)
> 
> > > I have always read and have been told PAT retained the "over the 
> hill"
> > > trackage (now Route 52) just in case an emergency closed the 
> tunnel.
> > > Considering the information presented in this discussion thread, 
> did PAT
> > > consider retaining another bridge crossing just in case the 
> Smithfield span
> > > had to be closed or perhaps if more serious weight restrictions 
> had
> > > to be imposed? Ken J.
> 
> James B. Holland
> 
>         Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
>     To e-mail privately, please click here: 
> mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
> N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/

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