I thought you might want to see plans of the high school I wanted to base Juan Madera High on.

 

 

I'm working on updating Bay City University.  The California Academy of Sciences isn't going to have the city's only planetarium.  Bay City University will have one, too.  Its staff wear royal blue flight suits and its Zeiss Mark IV planetarium projector rises to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Cal State East Bay is the basis for Cal State San Angelo.  UC Berkeley is the basis for UC San Angelo.

The Downtown office crisis could be worsening, with nearly half of all office space empty by 2028 and more than two dozen buildings in danger of foreclosure, according to one confidential report.

 

In addition, K&L Gates Center is facing a possible sheriff’s sale after a foreclosure by its lender.  And the owner of the Grant Building is trying to stave off a possible foreclosure after its
lender claimed it defaulted on a $38 million loan after it failed to extend or renew the lease of a key tenant.

 

They aren’t the only buildings in Downtown struggling to stay afloat amid high vacancies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and hybrid work policies

Just looking at the current weather reports, I'd say that San Angelo is being deluged by rain and the parts of the county closest to the Sierras are having a blizzard.

My opinion is a "Teen Champion".

I think s/he is a great character.

The University of Pittsburgh will launch a doctor of chiropractic program in fall 2025, a move that will introduce the first program of its kind in Pennsylvania — and the sole doctor of chiropractic program at any public institution in the country.

This really isn't grandiose, but I had Foxbat kidnap someone in order to get Mickey Mouse's autograph.

 

I also had the idea of him using a helicopter in an attempt to steal a cell phone tower.  It would end up with the helicopter getting impaled by the tower, screwing up cell phone signals, and requiring the local medevac helicopter to transport people to the nearest trauma hospital.

Upstream from the Smithfield Street Bridge is the Panhandle Bridge (officially the Monongahela River Bridge) carries the three lines of the Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Light Rail Network across the Monongahela River.  The name comes from Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, also known as the Panhandle Route, which operated over the bridge.

 

Near the southern end of the bridge, the rails split with a single track going up to Allentown.  This was used for a former light rail line, but it is still in use as a detour during maintenance work and service disruptions.  The private right-of-way, which goes under the Liberty Bridge, ends at the junction of Arlington Avenue and the McArdle Roadway (which climbs Mount Washington.  Like the Smithfield Street Bridge, the Panhandle Bridge is a lift bridge.  The tracks continue along Arlington Avenue.

 

The Liberty Bridge, which was completed in 1928, connects downtown Pittsburgh, to the Liberty Tunnels (or Liberty Tubes) and the South Hills neighborhoods beyond.  It crosses the Monongahela River and intersects Interstate 579 (the Crosstown Boulevard) at its northern terminus.  Unlike the Smithfield Street and Panhandle Bridges, it’s a two-leaf bascule bridge.  Just before the bridge end of the Liberty Tubes is an intersection with the McArdle Roadway.     

 

The control rooms/tenders’ quarters for the Panhandle and Liberty Bridges share the top floor of the building housing Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s First Avenue Station and Garage.  An intercom line connects it with the Smithfield Street Bridge control room.

The Smithfield Street Bridge is a lift bridge on Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River that once carried light-rail vehicles (trolleys or streetcars) as well as regular vehicular traffic.  It’s control room/tender’s house is on the top floor of Station Square’s Landmark Building, an office building with a restaurant on the ground floor.

 

Suzanne Snow, who suffers from allergies and asthma, is the 7 AM to 3 PM tender.  Pamela Griffeth, a former cat burglar, is the 3 to 11 PM tender.  Jenilee Snow, Suzanne’s sister, who also suffers from allergies and asthma, is the 11PM to 7 AM tender.  The girls love the cat burglar look and patronize The Light-Fingered Lady, a cat burglar-themed bar on East Carson Street.

 

 

Pittsburgh is a city of bridges, but it has tunnels, too.

 

The Armstrong Tunnel connects Second Avenue at the South Tenth Street Bridge, under the Bluff where Duquesne University is located, to Forbes Avenue between Boyd Street and Chatham Square.

 

The Cork Run Tunnel, also known as the Berry Street Tunnel, is used by the Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s West Busway.

 

The Corliss Tunnel is located at Corliss Street south where it meets West Carson Street in the Elliott neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

 

The Fort Pitt Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under Mount Washington in Pittsburgh.  It connects the West End region on the southwest side to the South Shore neighborhood on the northeast side.  The adjoining Fort Pitt Bridge on the northeast end connects to Downtown Pittsburgh.  The tunnel carries traffic on Interstate 376 (I-376), U.S. Route 22 (US 22), US 30, and US 19 Truck.  The structure comprises two bores, each with two lanes of traffic.  The inbound tunnel flows onto the top deck of the double-deck Fort Pitt Bridge, opposite traffic from the lower deck using the outbound tunnel.  To accommodate the bridge, the northeast portals of the parallel tunnels are vertically staggered by 30 feet.

 

The J&L Tunnel is a tunnel on CSX Transportation’s Pittsburgh Subdivision, at the former location of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company (now the Southside Works).

 

The Liberty Tunnels (also known as the Liberty Tubes) are a pair of tunnels located in Pittsburgh that allow motorists to travel between the South Hills and the city, beneath Mt. Washington.  The tunnels were vital in the expansion of the South Hills suburbs by providing a direct route to the city, eliminating the time-consuming task of navigating around or over Mt. Washington and its inclines.  

 

The Mount Washington Transit Tunnel is an important public transportation link in Pittsburgh.  The tunnel connects Station Square to South Hills Junction and is used only by Pittsburgh Light Rail cars and buses of the Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

 

The North Shore Connector tunnel is a twin-bore tunnel under the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh that was built as part of the North Shore Connector expansion project for the Pittsburgh Light Rail system.  It connects Downtown Pittsburgh with the North Shore neighborhood.

 

The Pittsburgh & Steubenville Extension Railroad Tunnel, also known as the Panhandle Tunnel, was originally built for the Pittsburgh and Steubenville Extension Railroad in Pittsburgh.  It officially opened for rail traffic in 1865.  The tunnel and the adjacent Panhandle Bridge were purchased by the Pittsburgh Regional Transit from Penn Central Corporation for $8.15 million in 1980.  The tunnel is now utilized by the Pittsburgh Light Rail System for some of its right-of-way and the Steel Plaza Station.

 

The Schenley Tunnel (also known as the Neville Street Tunnel and Pittsburgh Junction Railroad Tunnel) is a railroad tunnel in Pittsburgh. The tunnel runs beneath Neville Street in the city’s North Oakland neighborhood; the south portal is at the upper end of Junction Hollow, the north in a ravine that opens into Skunk Hollow, between North Oakland and Bloomfield.  It carries CSX Transportation’s P&W Subdivision.  The Allegheny Valley Railroad, a short-line railroad, uses the tunnel for regional services.  Amtrak’s Capitol Limited also uses the tunnel when entering and leaving the city.

 

The Squirrel Hill Tunnel (also known as the Squirrel Hill Tubes) is a tunnel in Pittsburgh.  It serves as an eastern gateway to the city for I-376.   

 

The Wabash Tunnel is a former railway tunnel and presently an automobile tunnel through Mt. Washington in the city of Pittsburgh.  On July 23, 2003, Pittsburgh Regional Transit approved contracts for US$10.9 million (US$15.3 million today) to build high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) ramps and modernized the tunnel, as well as provide a 172-space park-and-ride lot along Woodruff Street.  The little-used HOV lane was opened on December 27, 2004, running from West Carson Street on the South Side and through the tunnel to Woodruff Street in Mt. Washington.  The Fort Pitt Tunnel to the west and the Squirrel Hill Tunnels to the east carry nearly all of the vehicular traffic heading downtown.  On November 6, 2013, the Federal Transit Administration lifted the carpool requirements to provide an alternate route for drivers, due to the two-year closure of outbound West Carson Street.  On February 24, 2017, Pittsburgh Regional Transit announced that the HOV restrictions had been waived permanently.

 

 

On 12/29/2023 at 10:07 PM, Mark Rand said:

Val's father is a physicist, astronaut, and private pilot and she's already soloing in her own Cessna 172S Skyhawk.  The aircraft registration number on her flight bag is her Cessna's (N9988K).

As an additional comment, if Val's father is an astronaut, the family would probably live in the Huston, Texas, area, not Coastal City, Virginia.  At least one of her other relatives has to be an astronaut.

The Three Rivers Blimp, a renamed Bayside Blimp from Digital Hero 12, would be a great addition to Pittsburgh's skies.  It would be birthed at Allegheny County Airport in the suburb of West Mifflin.

Pittsburgh’s run-down bridges face yearslong backlog of repairs, tens of millions in maintenance

 

Records show the city has failed repeatedly to respond to inspectors’ alerts that major repairs and fundamental safeguards were needed

 

 

Neena Hagen and Hallie Lauer

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jan 28, 2024

8:19 AM

 

In the throes of Pittsburgh’s financial crisis in 2014, auditors issued a stern warning to local officials: Fix the aging Charles Anderson Bridge — a major span stretching from Oakland to Schenley Park — or it could be shut down and force detours on 20,000 motorists each day.

 

But the critical repairs were never performed on the 86-year-old bridge, even as the rusting underside and deck continued to deteriorate.

 

Nine years later, the predictions came true. With the superstructure at risk of “imminent failure,” local officials closed one of the most well-traveled thoroughfares in the city.

 

While much has been written about the city’s failures leading up to the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge two years ago, the lack of response by local officials to the alarms about the Charles Anderson exposes a deeper problem impacting scores of bridges in nearly every corner of the city.

 

In bridge after bridge, records show the city has failed repeatedly to respond to inspectors’ alerts that major repairs and fundamental safeguards needed to be implemented.

 

At the Larimer Bridge, hunks of concrete began to break off and fall. 

 

At the Swindell Bridge, inspectors found the floor beams so corroded that deep holes punctured the surface.

 

The 28th Street Bridge, a major artery for travel between Polish Hill and the Strip District, received repairs in 2019, but debris was still falling from the span a year later, inspectors noted.

 

“We need to be more proactive,” state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said. “We’ve got to find out where our problem bridges are and not wait for something to happen to address it.”

 

Yearslong wait for repairs

 

While Mayor Ed Gainey and other officials have bolstered their bridge oversight — the city added new funding for maintenance and introduced five new positions to the Bridges and Structures Division to tend to the iconic structures — Pittsburgh is now faced with the specter of repairing 22 bridges rated in poor condition, the same number as when Fern Hollow crumbled to the ground.

 

“The Fern Hollow Bridge for many Americans was a wakeup call for something we already know all too well, which is over the last half-century, America allowed its critical infrastructure to deteriorate,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a press conference Wednesday.

 

While all bridges need periodic repairs — and sometimes replacements — experts say the lack of a rigorous maintenance program may have set Pittsburgh back years in addressing its most urgent infrastructure needs.

 

So far, the city is only positioned to carry out one major renovation this year: The Charles Anderson. Several bridges rated in poor condition won't undergo renovations for five years or longer, and each bridge can take a year or more to be fully rehabilitated as the costs of repairs climb.  

 

Pittsburgh bridges rated ‘poor’

 

Of the 147 bridges owned by the City of Pittsburgh, 22 of them have been deemed to be in poor condition by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Poor is the worst rating the state can give a bridge. Nine of the bridges are slated to receive state and federal funding in coming years, but only one – the Charles Anderson Memorial Bridge – is scheduled to start construction this year.

 

For the Larimer Bridge, city officials had to install netting to stop chunks of the underside from tumbling down onto the four-lane Washington Boulevard below. The span isn’t scheduled to undergo major repairs until 2026.

 

The Lowrie Street Bridge, also rated poor, isn’t scheduled for fixes until 2032.

 

The Ansonia Bridge, which stretches over the heavily trafficked Route 51, has been shut down because of structural deficiencies for more than seven years and it will be another seven years before it gets a major renovation.

 

Further aggravating the problem is that the more time that passes — with traffic pounding the structures — the greater probability the bridges will require more extensive work.

 

The cost will be steep: a private consultant hired by the city estimated that urgent repairs could cost up to $11.7 million, and renovations for several of the city’s aging bridges could total in the hundreds of millions, bogging down taxpayers for generations, records and interviews show.

 

“When you don’t have the resources, you don’t have the resources,” Mr. Costa said. “That’s the problem.”

 

“When you don’t have the resources, you don’t have the resources. That’s the problem.”

 

Costly upgrades

 

In the years since the Fern Hollow collapse, Mr. Gainey has increased the city’s budget for bridge upgrades from about $750,000 when he first took office to about $4.75 million in 2023. The city is also expected to receive about $3.6 million from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission for the Bridge Preservation and Restoration Fund this year. But those funds will barely dent the amount of money that will be needed to tackle all of the breakdowns in city bridges.

 

The Charles Anderson rehab alone is expected to cost $27 million.

 

Before it closed, Emmett Henderson, a Greenfield resident, said he would take that bridge to his job as a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Mr. Henderson said that when Fern Hollow fell, his colleagues weren’t surprised. Typical Pittsburgh infrastructure, they said. “That in itself is a bad sign,” he said.

 

Two years later, Mr. Henderson said he’s disappointed by the city’s failure to address the nearly two dozen bridges in poor condition.

 

“You’d think that would’ve sounded the alarm a little bit.” he said. 

 

In the case of Fern Hollow, inspectors repeatedly told the city to clean out the drainage systems and make sure the surface water and salt was not seeping into the underbelly of the span, an engineer for CDM Smith told National Transportation Safety Board investigators. And every year, most of the warnings were never acted on by the city, emails show.

 

The same situation has happened with other city bridges. Take the case of the Swindell Bridge that soars high over Parkway North.

 

Year after year, inspectors found serious structural deficiencies. In 2020, there was heavy rusting and corrosion — mostly from a deteriorating water drainage system — and “fracture critical” areas of the deck. The following year, inspectors discovered rampant holes and leaky joints.

 

City officials allocated no money for the Swindell Bridge in this year’s budget, but future projections show about $3.1 million going to the bridge next year and $8 million in 2026.(Lucy Schaly/Post-Gazette)

 

The 94-year-old span had to be closed for two months in 2022, after construction work on the bridge caused debris to fall onto the busy highway below. Last year, it was shut down again while crews restored about $540,000 worth of deteriorated steel beams.

 

“When they work on this bridge, they only do patch work,” said Dre Wilson, an employee at Wilson’s Bar-B-Q in Perry South. “Everytime they fix something you come back and there’s another hole.”

 

City officials allocated no money for the Swindell Bridge in this year’s budget, but future projections show about $3.1 million going to the bridge next year and $8 million in 2026. Most of the money for Pittsburgh’s bridge repairs comes from state and federal sources, through the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

 

Corrosion ‘a cancer’ on bridges

 

For dozens of bridges across the city, inspectors say the most damaging oversight mistake is failing to clean the clogged drainage systems, which can give way to rust.

 

“The number one problem was the clog scuppers and downspouts on almost all their bridges,” Tim Pintar, who inspected Fern Hollow and several other Pittsburgh bridges over the years, told NTSB investigators.

 

When drainage systems aren’t cleaned out at least annually, corrosion can set in within three to four years. And once corrosion begins, experts say, it’s nearly impossible to stop.

 

“Longterm, it can destroy” a bridge, said Roberto Leon, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. “I would characterize it almost as a cancer. We have treatments for cancer, but there are certain cancers that don’t respond very well to treatment.” 

 

The underside of the Anderson Bridge is covered with rust, a sign of corrosion, according to Mr. Leon. Construction bids for a full rehabilitation of the bridge are scheduled to go out in February, and the bridge is tentatively set to reopen in the Fall of 2026.

 

The Panther Hollow Overpass, which sits just a few hundred yards down the street from the Anderson bridge, has also been included in the redesign to fix problems that would have resulted in the posting of a weight limit on the overpass.

 

But in fixing those bridges, another bridge slated for a complete reconstruction has been delayed.

 

In July 2022, the city announced the Swinburne Bridge, which connects Greenfield and Hazelwood to Downtown, would undergo a complete reconstruction.

 

But when the Charles Anderson Bridge was unexpectedly closed, city officials raised concerns about the traffic impact of having both closed at the same time due to their proximity. The original timeline from the city had construction starting on the Swinburne bridge this year, but now, a bid for work won’t go out until February 2025.

 

The cost of upkeep

 

Time and money are some of the biggest hindrances in fixing bridges.

 

Because of that, cities often carry out short-term fixes rather than major overhauls, but that “creates more problems than it solves,” said Hota GangaRao, an engineering professor at West Virginia University.

 

The small repair jobs work in the short-term, but eventually a large renovation will be needed and could take longer and be more costly than if the bridge was completely fixed the first time, he added.

 

Over the next decade Pittsburgh is expected to receive about $202.6 million from the SPC for bridge repairs. But the bulk of that money won’t be seen until 2027 or later, as long as priorities remain the same. And there are no guarantees the city will get the money.

 

Over the next decade Pittsburgh is expected to receive about $202.6 million from the SPC for bridge repairs. But the bulk of that money won’t be seen until 2027 or later, as long as priorities remain the same. And there are no guarantees the city will get the money.

 

The SPC manages the Regional Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) which outlines the region’s “highest priority transportation projects” and is updated every two years.

 

With less than half the city’s poorly rated spans scheduled for extensive repairs by local officials and the SPC, the length of time it could take for Pittsburgh's dilapidated bridges to be upgraded could be 20 years or longer.

 

Even if the city has created its own schedule for repairs, it still must wait in line with other jurisdictions for the state and federal funding.

 

Top priority is not always determined by bridges in the worst condition, but by what projects local representatives lobby for. PennDOT officials have previously said that if local officials want to bump a bridge up the list for repairs, they can press to get the work done.

 

Those needs could change though, depending on who is in office and what the status of the infrastructure is at the time.

 

“What we have to do is prioritize the ones that are in the most immediate need to make them maintain their safety and work our way through that process by doing assessments of their condition,” Mr. Costa said.

 

Laura Esposito, Mike Wereschagin and Jonathan D. Salant contributed to this report.

 

Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com; Neena Hagen: nhagen@post-gazette.com

 

First Published January 28, 2024, 5:30am

Buttigieg, elected leaders tout $142M in infrastructure improvements for Parkway East and other facilities

U.S. Transportation secretary and elected leaders say money is crucial for transportation needs in region

 

Steve Bohnel

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

sbohnel@post-gazette.com

Jan 27, 2024

8:04 AM

Amid the activity of Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses leaving and departing Swissvale’s Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway station, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and several federal and state elected officials gathered Friday to celebrate a $142.3 million federal grant to support infrastructure improvements in the region.

 

The grant is part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. It helps fund the Eastern Pittsburgh Multimodal Corridor Project, which focuses on improvements to Parkway East and the East Busway.

 

Of the $142.3 million, $48.5 million will be spent on an active traffic management system —- which includes dynamic message boards, variable speed limit systems, wrong way vehicle detection and queue warning — on the Parkway East from Monroeville to Downtown. The improvements aim to reduce the number of  crashes on the busy highway.

 

There also will be $39 million for flood mitigation for the westbound “Bathtub,” an area of more than 600 yards along the Parkway that has been flood prone for decades. Other funds will rehabilitate ten bridges in the region, improve parts of South Braddock Avenue and Ardmore Boulevard/U.S. 30, and fill in missing sections of sidewalks along Business U.S. 22 in Wilkins and Monroeville. It also will build hard shoulders along the East Busway and a ramp from the Parkway East to the busway, near Edgewood Towne Center at the Edgewood-Swissvale border.

 

Mr. Buttigieg said Friday that typically when he thinks of bathtubs, it’s in a positive light — he’s in charge of bathtime for his two kids, aged two-and-a-half years old. But he understands Pittsburgh’s “bathtub” is seen differently.

 

“I’m surprised to find myself in anything but a pro bathtub position ... but this is not that kind of bathtub,” he said. 

 

County Executive Sara Innamorato, U.S. Representatives Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee, and U.S. Senator John Fetterman — said that the project’s benefits included creating over 2,500 jobs, adding $254.9 million to the local economy, addressing climate change challenges and improving the transportation network in the region.

 

Its impacts will help people in their day-to-day lives, they said.

 

“The funding isn’t just about roads and buses. This is about people, this is about jobs, and this is about the quality of life in this region,” Ms. Lee said.

 

Mr. Buttigieg told reporters at a press conference that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will be in charge of finalizing plans for projects that are funded by the grant. The U.S. Department of Transportation will be working with state transportation officials on completing agreements for how the federal money specifically will be used for those projects, he said.

 

Mike Carroll, the state’s Secretary of Transportation, told the Post-Gazette after the press conference that there is roughly $100 million in other state and federal funds to help complete the Eastern Pittsburgh Multimodal Corridor Project. He said that parts of the project should hopefully start by late 2025. 

 

More broadly, he said he hopes that federal leaders can keep infrastructure front-and-center in the coming years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was the first major transportation bill passed by Congress in decades and funds infrastructure projects for five years.

 

“The [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] was a five-year investment — my hope would be that we renew it when this one expires,” Mr. Carroll said. 

 

For now, though, the federal funds are invaluable for major infrastructure needs in the area, he said.

 

“This region does not need to be reminded of the challenges on [Interstate] 376, and advanced use of the Busway really makes a difference for everybody,” Mr. Carroll said. 

Steve Bohnel: sbohnel@post-gazette.com

First Published January 26, 2024, 4:18pm

 

 

New federal funding aims to drain I-376’s ‘bathtub’, rehab 10 bridges, improve busway and highways

 

Pittsburgh road work is one of 37 projects receiving federal funding to bolster infrastructure

 

Jonathan D. Salant

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

jsalant@post-gazette.com

Jan 25, 2024

6:02 AM

WASHINGTON — It’s known as the bathtub, that section of Interstate 376 alongside the Mon Wharf and the Monongahela River that has been prone to flooding since the highway was built almost 70 years ago.

 

Now the federal government is taking steps to keep the water out.

 

President Joe Biden is heading to Wisconsin on Thursday to announce $5 billion in federal funding for 37 infrastructure projects, including $142.3 million for improvements to I-376 through Pittsburgh, nearby highways and the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway.

 

The work includes installing a new flood wall to keep the water away from I-376, rehabilitating 10 bridges, improving parts of South Braddock Avenue and U.S. 30/Lincoln Highway/Ardmore Boulevard, filling in the missing sections of sidewalks along U.S. 22 Business in Wilkins and Monroeville, and making bus infrastructure improvements.

 

The project also includes variable lanes and speed limits, systems to detect wrong-way traffic, and other technologies designed to reduce what DOT says is a higher-than-average number of crashes on the Parkway East in this area.

 

Pittsburgh officials announced last month that the money was coming, and Thursday’s visit by Mr. Biden to a key swing state in the 2024 presidential election provides another way to highlight the funding under the president’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law.

 

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said in December that the construction would create more than 2,500 jobs, add $254.9 million to the local economy and prevent hundreds of crashes annually. 

 

As the region marks the second anniversary of the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge — which occurred just hours before Mr. Biden arrived in Pittsburgh to tout his infrastructure proposal — U.S. transportation officials also highlighted the repairs to 10 bridges along the I-376 corridor.

 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said these bridges aren’t “cathedrals” like major spans such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but they’re just as important to the motorists who use them.

 

“For bridges that maybe don’t show up on the national Top 10 list, but mean everything to the commuters who count on them every day, we have funding to improve things through this infrastructure package,” Mr. Buttigieg said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters.

 

Overall, 3,022 — or 13% — of Pennsylvania’s 23,257 bridges were rated as deficient, the sixth highest percentage in the country, according to the Federal Highway Administration. That’s 100 fewer deficient bridges than a year earlier.

Jonathan D. Salant: jsalant@post-gazette.com, @JDSalant

First Published January 25, 2024, 5:30am

 

The Carnegie Science Center teased that a mysterious and transformational announcement was coming Tuesday afternoon, and boy were they were not kidding.

 

 

Bigwigs from both the North Shore museum and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh — the consortium of four local museums that includes the Science Center — were on hand as the Science Center announced that it had recently received an unprecedented $65 million gift from Shadyside-based couple Daniel and Carole Kamin.

 

 

That’s by far the largest monetary donation to the Science Center since its founding in 1991, according to Jason Brown, the Science Center’s Henry Buhl Jr. director and Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh’s vice president. It’s also the biggest gift given to any entity within the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh since Andrew Carnegie’s original 1895 contribution, according to CMOP president and CEO Steven Knapp.

 

 

Going forward, the museum that used to bear Mr. Carnegie’s name will be known as the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center.

4 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

Wasn't C&S out in the Seventies?  Pretty sure I haven't even reached my teens when it first came out. 

 

Pendragon's also a decent game-history source for Arthurian England, albeit more narrow than C&S was.  Must be at least one GURPS book that would be of use as well.

That's one I'd dearly love to play a good lasting campaign of again, but it takes a table full of people who are really invested in playing to work well IME.  Hard to put together, arguably harder than doing Amber Diceless for any period of time.  Their version of Mythic Europe is a fascinating read, at the very least.  

There was a GURPS Arthurian England book.  It had three versions of the era, including one where Guinevere was a Celtic warrior queen who could take lovers as she wished.

1 hour ago, Lord Liaden said:

Another old fogy here, and Ball and Arnaz's company was the first thing I thought of, too.

 

In fact, given the median age of this community, I think that will come to mind a lot. 👴👵

At 73, I'm also an old fogy.

Maybe a vigilante cat burglar who only goes after the truly evil.

9 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Just as an aside to that, do you favor something close to gender equality in the world's society? Or would Guinevere and Rowanne be exceptional in that regard?

A few women have taken up arms, including Elaine and Aleta, the impetuous, and often prideful, Princess of the Misty Isles, but most don't.

Arthurian England, based on the animated Prince Valiant, but with Queen Guinevere as a Knight of the Round Table and Rowanne as a soldier and, when necessary, Guinevere's squire.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

State and county leaders on Thursday announced $132 million in funds to repair three major bridges in the Pittsburgh region: Fort Duquesne, West End, and McKees Rocks.

 

 

The three steel structures span either the Allegheny or Ohio rivers, and have a combined age of nearly 240 years.