Rusty situation of practice bridge that travels over Parkway West attracts concern

A railroad bridge over the Parkway in Carnegie with seen rust and hanging items is drawing concern from the general public.

KDKA Investigates acquired a number of issues concerning the integrity of the bridge, resulting in an eight-month investigation into the bridge’s security. 

“It needs to be redone. But whether the railroad or whatever, it always takes a catastrophe for anything to get done, no matter what it is,” Joe Marnik, the proprietor of Joe’s Auto Classics in Carnegie, instructed KDKA Investigates.

Who owns the bridge?

In December, KDKA Investigates started trying into the situation of the railroad bridge, higher referred to as Whiskey Run Viaduct, over Interstate 376 in Carnegie. According to PennDOT, roughly 87,000 autos journey the Parkway below the bridge day by day.

Video captured by KDKA-TV exhibits the bridge has holes, rust chipping away, and items dangling or which have fallen to the bottom under.

According to the Federal Railroad Administration, the security of particular person railroad bridges, together with their inspection, upkeep, and restore, is the accountability of the observe proprietor. In this case, Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Company owns the bridge.

KDKA Investigates despatched the corporate an electronic mail in December to ask concerning the situation of the bridge, inspection stories and if it has plans to restore/change the bridge. KDKA adopted up with the corporate in January and despatched a proper request for data. Three months later, that request for data was denied. KDKA Investigates reached out once more in June and by no means acquired a response.

PennDOT mentioned it has no oversight over the bridge, solely when or if repairs might affect visitors.

“It’s frightening. And I’m sure the people that travel it feel the same way,” Marnik mentioned.

Marnik mentioned he is seen crews occasionally trying on the bridge and shared issues with others as as to whether it is structurally sound.

Congressman says it appears “terrible”

KDKA Investigates reached out to U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, exhibiting him video we captured of the rusted bridge.

“Anyone who’s ridden the parkway there has seen this. It looks terrible,” Deluzio instructed KDKA Investigates.

Because Deluzio is an elected official, his workplace is allowed to request and acquire summaries of railroad inspection stories, however the data is proscribed.

“I want to have a very different regime where the public can get access to these reports whenever they want, so that experts can look at this and see if things are safe,” Deluzio mentioned.

Deluzio has spent years pushing for native rail security after the practice derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. 

During our interview, Deluzio mentioned it is unclear what the trains going over the bridge in Carnegie are carrying.

“We know they carry dangerous stuff. We should have some confidence that their infrastructure is safe, and that they have to operate safely when they’re putting chemicals and things like that through our communities,” Deluzio mentioned.

His workplace requested the inspection report from Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway Company in June. In August, KDKA Investigates acquired a replica of the report that confirmed the final annual inspection was on Feb. 22, 2026.

According to the report, the situation of the bridge confirmed that “the bridge is confirmed to have the capacity to safely carry traffic being operated over the bridge.”

Deluzio’s workplace reported {that a} particular inspection was additionally performed in mid-December 2025 after the railroad acquired inquiries about its situation. Our cameras additionally caught crews engaged on the bridge on the finish of July 2026.  

“It shouldn’t just be railroads regulating themselves. If someone is reporting something unsafe, has some evidence of that, the Department of Transportation then has to take action, because again, the current regime is the railroads inspecting themselves,” Deluzio mentioned.

Deluzio mentioned he and different members of Congress are pushing for transparency and dealing to alter the regulation so bridge inspection information can be found to anybody.

“Local officials are not armed to even get this information. That’s part of the problem. I can’t just happen to be a member of Congress requesting this. Media should be able to get these reports. Local officials should be able to get these reports. PennDOT should be able to get these reports,” Deluzio mentioned.

Structural engineer weighs in

KDKA Investigates talked to an area structural engineer concerning the situation of the bridge to be taught extra.

“I can understand that the public has concerns with all the rust, and there are some holes. Those holes we call section loss. When you have a hole, it’s 100% section loss,” mentioned Gary Miller, an expert engineer with Gary J. Miller Structural Engineering Services.

Miller mentioned the greater than 120-year-old bridge hasn’t had a paint job because it was constructed however mentioned it was designed to face up to a certain quantity of rust and believes the part loss is just not compromising its structural capability.

“They will keep replacing small parts, welding in new plates, and keep doing this, and to a point where the repair becomes so prohibitive, as far as expense-wise, they might consider replacing them. But I don’t see that happening in the next 20 to 40 years, quite honestly; they’re so overdesigned,” Miller mentioned.

Video from the KDKA Drone Team captured footage below components of the bridge to present Miller one other perspective.

“I wanted to see close-up shots to the main load-bearing members directly underneath the bridge and see whether there was high degrees of section loss that would weaken it, and I didn’t see that. I just saw surface rust,” Miller mentioned.

As for the items which can be damaged or have fallen to the bottom, Miller mentioned they don’t seem to be major load-bearing members however have been there for bracing as a secondary member.

“I don’t have anxieties driving under the bridge of seeing what I’m seeing at this point,” Miller mentioned.

Deluzio’s workplace reached out to the railway firm in July to be taught what crews have been doing on the bridge when KDKA-TV’s cameras captured them working. We’re ready to listen to again.

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